


Ruin and Prosperity

by CalmSpirited



Category: Dead by Daylight (Video Game)
Genre: Multi, This is a new AU ok LEAVE ME BE, also hewwo new update there will prob be some hot spicy parts in this so be aware...it is coming, heavy makeouts and stuffs, i like this and ill be making a thing outta it, no outright smut but
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-05
Updated: 2018-10-23
Packaged: 2019-03-27 06:07:25
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 11
Words: 29,043
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13874757
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CalmSpirited/pseuds/CalmSpirited
Summary: As time passes, things change and more chances arise to start over. Jake takes one and it's a blessing to him and others.





	1. Chapter 1

Time passed, that much was certain. Time passed, and Jake, truthfully, lost track of it long ago, long before this point in his tragic life, around the time he was granted the blessing (or curse) of Legacy, the scars and touch of the Entity shining brightly even through the thickest of Fogs, time just… wasn’t that important to keep up with anymore. Not in preciseness, at least. He kept time by who arrived and when: Laurie came after Nea, the Detective came after Quentin, etc. It seemed like the influx of Survivors and Killers would never end, and, eventually, it got to the point where there actually wasn’t any more room at the Campfire, and the Entity seemed relatively lax about what the Survivors did about it.

So, with Dwight’s blessing and direction, Jake started organizing and preparing to build a shelter of sorts for all of them, although, Jake soon discovered it had to be very close to the Campfire, lest he come back from a Trial to come upon whatever he had gotten built before leaving being dismantled by large spider legs that popped up from the ground.

He’s not sure how long it took (because, you know, time isn’t a singular thing here), but, before he could believe it, it was done, and they had a little ceremony to commemorate this momentous occasion, some more than others, aka David getting way too drunk and Quentin, adderall, and alcohol? Do NOT mix. It wasn’t much, a large, open common area with some ‘private’ areas in the back.

It wasn’t much, but it was better than dirt and fake spider fire by any means.

Jake was so proud of himself, the proudest he’s been of something in a while, way more than any hook he’s tampered with and more than any bear trap he’s rendered unusable. It gave him something to look forward to after the endless cycles of death, for those moments of reprieve and temporary rest. Whenever he saw it, he felt like he had contributed and had made people happy, and that filled Jake with the most hope he had ever had in this place, hope from enjoyment, rather than hope from pure spite.

Even when Nea tagged it, he couldn’t find it within himself to be mad at her at all, in fact, he simply laughed when he saw it, and declared it part of the ‘decor’. He wrapped an arm around her and pressed a kiss to her cheek when the prying eyes of other Survivors had had their eyefull of Nea’s art, and whispered to her, “You should be on HGTV,” into her ear, holding her closer when she scowled and tried to wiggle out of his grasp to protest his approval. 

She didn’t wiggle far, only getting far enough for Jake to get a faceful of her ass when he bent over to grab her, their knees dirtied with the ground they both ended up wrestling on, but that was nothing compared to the scars from the horrors of Hell, but that affected neither of them when they were together. When they were on the same team, they usually survived to fight again, their hope fueled each other, and it made everything a slight bit more okay and manageable to them.

To all of them.

There came a point where there were so many Survivors that there were at least 3 Trials going on at all times, the Survivor count topping 29 at Jake’s recent count, and with plenty of Killers to keep up with the never- ending feasting. He could see that Meg was slowing down, her Sprint Burst not carrying as far or for as long as before, Adrenaline not giving her the last bit of extra energy to get her out alive sometimes. Dwight, not always pushing his best, nor Claudette always being there to save you from death hook, and even Jake had to admit Sabotage wasn’t all it was in the beginning to him anymore.

The older ones were slowing down, and he could feel as if some great cycle was about to take place. The Survivors usually came one by one, but perhaps soon a large influx would stumble n and force the older ones out, besides there were so many now the Entity couldn’t possibly keep up with all of them. Even a creature such as the Entity couldn’t just eat and eat and eat- something had to give, and Jake was afraid of what.

It was the 30th Survivor, a younger man by the name of Devon who really tipped things over the edge. Before, when Survivors talked and explained about how they got there, they were usually barraged with questions about what year is it, what’s going on in the world, etc. This Survivor had one hell of a tale to tell, one that chilled them all to the core, even Laurie and Quentin, who obviously had come from a different reality than Jake and most of the others had come from, were horrified at the story he spoke of.

The 29th Survivor, another younger man named Wesley, had told then it was at least the year 2024, and that the world, while unstable, was still being held together by threads of diplomacy. The 30th Survivor spoke of nothing positive or peaceful, only that the world had finally descended into chaos and war, vast areas of Earth uninhabitable by nuclear arsenals and people fleeing to wherever they could, regardless of the lore behind the area they were settling.

Devon told them that he wasn’t the only one who came into the forest that foggy day, and he certainly wasn’t going to be the last, as the forest held their main source of food, consisting of animals, some fish and berries. Jake, as well as everyone else got a dark, unsettled feeling, and they all swore they heard a chuckle emanate from all around them as Devon spoke, realizing that there was going to be an influx of fresh Survivors soon. And there certainly was.

30, 40, 50, the numbers kept growing at an unprecedented rate, and no end in sight for the poor, half- starved and some partially radiated souls that made their fateful way to the Campfire. They almost seemed… glad at first to not have to worry about food or water or even foreign enemies invading their homes, but they soon saw the Entity’s Realm for what it was: Hell and endless suffering. Many of them came to believe that they had died of a harsh nuclear winter or of a sneaking enemy attack had butchered them all in their sleep, and that they had just perished into Hell.

Devon didn’t believe that, thank God, he was actually quite the nice young man, almost Claudette level nice (though no one could be her, he was a close second), but it was when they all started arriving that Devon explained that his community brethren were a bit… fanatic. It, of course, caused a schism within the Survivor group, half believing heavily that they were doing penance and should just be punished and tortured submissively for eternity, the other half vehemently arguing that they were trapped here and that they needed to fight and struggle to escape. 

“Jake, we need to fucking do something about them! They’re fucking us all up and I will not-”

“Nea, keep your voice down; they could hear us!”

“But, Jake, we have to do-”

“I know, Nea, I’m agreeing with you, but what, exactly? They’re a huge part of our group, it’s not like we can just exile them!”

“We’ll just- we’ll just kick them out! One by one, in the Trials, we’ll just give them up to the Killer if they want to die so bad.”

“But that will make us murders, love. We just- can’t. I won’t, and I won’t stand by and let you do that. If they want to die fully, then fine, but I’m not going to force them along.”

The argument that wasn’t as secret as they thought, an argument that was heard by more than just their two ears.

The argument that was the straw that broke the camel’s back.

It was near chaos after that, the two sides in constant bickering and dissonance to the point of actual altercations between the two sides were common. Finally, Dwight called all of the Hopefuls (the name they had labeled to distinguished themselves) together in a private meeting away from the others to decide what to do, once and for all. There were now 30 on their side, and with the newest person, the Despaired had 42, and it was growing still.

“Now, guys.” Dwight looked haggard and tired, his office shirt had a new tear in it that jake had never seen before, and his mind briefly floated to a recent fight that Dwight was involved in that left his office shirt in disarray. “I know- you all know why we are here, and what we must decide. I am not a person who goes to violence, but, at this point, I am open to most anything you guys can come up with as a solution-”

“Let’s burn them!”

“String ‘em up, hang ‘em high!”

“Take out in the woods and lose them one by one!”  
“Sacrifice them ourselves!”

“Make sure they DIE EVERY ROUND!”

That last one was Nea’s, and that comment drove Jake to stand up and make his own statement, struggling to make himself heard at first, due to Nea’s last suggestion actually getting a roaring approval from most of the people there, but he managed to scream loud enough for everyone to stop and stare at him.

“LISTEN! HEY- NEA, LISTEN! I know we all hate them, and I do too, but killing them would just make us Killers ourselves. Let’s just… leave them alone. There’s so many of us now that the Entity can’t keep up with us, I mean, when is the last time one of us older ones have been in a Trial? It’s been ages since Dwight has actually been out there to lead us and never thought I’d say this here but I’ve almost forgotten what it’s like to be in a chase. Let’s just leave and build our own place, like I did all that time ago. It’ll be much less confrontational that us fighting them.”

Nobody spoke, nobody said a word, the only sound is everyone's heavy breathing, and the occasional chirp of a crow.

Until Laurie got up, when to her little area by the fire where she usually sat, gathered her little satchel of belongings sitting there, and then walked back over to Jake, standing by him and giving him a resolute nod of approval. She was ready to leave. Claudette soon followed her footsteps, as did Dwight, and as soon as Dwight moved to grab his sparse items, nearly everyone else did too, a few scraggles choosing to stay behind, too scared of what was out there in the woods to venture forth. But that was their choice, and Jake let them lie in their bed the way that they made it, and led those who decided to follow him out into the woods towards their new home, if the Entity would allow it.

They walked for a long time, feeling no exhaustion nor strain strong enough to stop them, on and on they went, until even Jake himself wanted to pull out his hair from the constant forest and walking, and even one of them had simply given up and sat down in the dirt, refusing to go on even father. Jake could sense that everyone was getting restless behind his lead, hoping that a mutiny wouldn’t take place, and he prayed to whatever benevolent deity was overhead that they would find something soon-

“Jake…” A whacking to his arm and the harsh whisper of Nea brought him out of his own mind, and he saw what she was gesturing wildly to, and what everyone was collectively gasping to.

The sun. Or at least, the first peaks of its rays over a clearing horizon.

Suddenly, aches settled into their bones, but they pressed onwards until they sun was just fully over the land, and was sliding across the land like a ball rolling, and the moon was behind them, mimicking the motions of the sun on the opposite horizon. It was the first time Jake had seen the sun, the real sun, in over 10 years, and he soaked it up like a dry sponge in a bath. They all kept walking, as the sun rolled to the left to make way for the moon to rotate on by, their timing nearly perfect with each other so that they moved in unison, and it was beautiful to the group of people who had seen nothing but darkness for years. They kept walking until the couldn’t anymore, Jake finally signaling for them to halt once the sun came back around to signal a strange and faux morning to them, collapsing on the ground in exhaustion. They all nearly fell asleep on top of each other, Nea curling on top of Jake like the cat she was, and Jake was honestly the most happy he’s been since he got here.

They all slept a deep and refreshing slumber, one that, once they awoke, left them feeling like they ruled their world, and, in a way, they did. Jake woke first, his bleary eyes taking count of everyone that had stuck through their journey, lingering on the forms of Dwight and David locked in a spooning embrace before looking down at the stirring for of Nea in his arms. He didn’t get up just yet, opting to look around, specifically at the sun and moon, which he noticed with an outstretched hand, had risen off the horizon line to where, at a certain angle, he could shove his hand sideways between the orb of the sun and the edge of the world.

“Hmphfff… what are you doing, bird boy?” Nea’s groggy voice drew him to the top of her beanie- covered head, and he sighed and sat up as much as he could with her weight on him.

“Living and being alive, that’s what we all are doing.”

There was a lot ahead for them, but they would get through it. Jake didn’t feel as if they had escaped the Entity’s clutches entirely, but, he didn’t feel the impending doom of an incoming Trail in the pit of his stomach and mind anymore, though that may just be the heat of the moment talking. 

Standing up and gently moving Nea to the side, he surveyed his surroundings: there was a clearing a bit up ahead, a good place to settle and build structures if desired, but… there could be more up ahead, just waiting to be discovered and maybe even an escape from Hell. But, remembering the descriptions that Devon told him, maybe the outside world was a worser Hell, but damn if that didn’t just encourage Jake to find out. But, first, they needed to rest and find a place to touch base, and this was as good enough place as any, already seeing how he could plan and lay things out, creating a grid- like blueprint in his mind’s eye for the remaining 26 of them.

It was their start, and Jake wasn’t going to waste it. Not a damn bit.


	2. Where The Future Diverges

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Splitting up isn't always easy, but sometimes a goodbye is necessary.

Jake hated to disturb his friend sleeping so peacefully, but he felt as if he had to make a decision soon on whether or not they should keep going or stop for a while, so he went over to Dwight and gently shook him awake, trying his best to not wake David in the process because if David woke up, everyone would be up as David tended to become quite loud in discussions.

“Dwight, wake up!” Whispering as quietly as he could, he pinched Dwight’s nose to attempt to cut off his air supply, which worked and Dwight jolted awake, shifting David in the process, but the scrapper going back to sleeping soundly after a moment of readjusting.

“Wh- what is it Jake, is something wrong?”

“No, just we have an important decision to make, and I want to know what you think before we ask the others.” Dwight didn’t need to be told to know what the survivalist was talking about, and he rose up to a sitting position with David’s arm still around his waist. He sighed and scrubbed at his face, his glasses being fixed after being rubbed askew by his tiredness.

“Hold on. Let me-” Looking around, Dwight swept his gaze over the land that surrounded them, taking count of everything he saw: trees, the sun and moon, and a sizeable clearing right ahead. “This is…”

“Actually quite beautiful.”

“Yeah.” It’s been a long time since Dwight has seen any kind of vegetation besides spare medicinal plants, swamp fauna and all the trees and grass the Entity threw around. Now, there was certainly more variety than there’s ever been in that hellhole. Dwight reached out to fondle nearby purple grass, and was pleasantly surprised when it didn’t disgenterate into embers at its removal from the ground once he plucked it.

Beautiful like a newborn baby that you first hold in your arms.

“Dwight.” Jake’s voice brought Dwight of his appreciation for the wild purple grass, and he looked up to meet Jake’s eyes, for once clear of hair obstructing its view and looking more lively than he’s ever seen them. “We need to decide on things.”

“I think this would be a nice place to stay, Jake.”

“It would be, but, think about what else could be out there, maybe something better, maybe something worse, or maybe even a way out.”

“Well, we can’t just go right now, we’re all still exhausted.” Dwight looked tired himself still, although the bags that were under his eyes seemed to have lighten their load a bit. Jake opened his mouth to reply, but Nea, who had tried going back to sleep but failing, had finally spoken up herself.

“Jake’s right. If there’s an exit out there, we need to find it before it’s gone.” Voice slightly hoarse, Nea moved her beanie to cover her eyes while she rubbed at them to wake herself up and look at least slightly convincing and intimidating to persuade Dwight. Which might’ve worked.

A hum came from the Leader, and he looked torn, torn between the possibilities of all the unknown variants. There seemed to be too much weight on his shoulders and they sagged with the invisible pressure. Jake softly laid a gloved hand on his shoulders and gave him a reassuring look. “Look, we’ve come this far already with you at the helm, and you won’t be alone in this choice.”

The nervous man didn’t answer Jake, simply looking down at David’s arm in his lap, and tracing vague patterns into it, thinking hard. Jake and Nea, were right. Given how there were so many people following them now, they couldn’t just keep walking along like a rag- tag team going into a Trail, no, they were a family nearly, a community at least, and a community needs a leader. But, Dwight, Dwight knew he wasn’t the best leader. Hell, as much of a loner Jake was, he was smart and resourceful and would probably be a much better leader than himself, he argued internally. But… the dreaded doubt arose again, wreaking havoc on the little self- confidence he had stored away in his subconscious.

If they really needed someone to lead them, then, well… there had to be a reason why he was labeled as the Leader, right? And hopefully, it wasn’t as a cruel joke.

“...We’ll split up.”

The pale man’s voice was soft- spoken and barely audible, but it’s impacts was felt fully. “We’ll split up-” His voice picked up a bit now, some long lost charisma coming forth. “- into two- groups. One group will stay here to rest, another group will go out and search for anything out there. The only problem is who’s going to do what.”

“I’ll stay here and be your bobby, love, if ya have me.”

The anxious man jumps a bit at his boyfriend’s voice, but isn’t startled all too much, and pats David’s bruised hand affectionately, giving him a smile. “None can match your strength, but are you sure you can keep yourself level headed? I mean, you’re going to be prevent fights, not starting them.” He trusts David to do a good job if he really set himself to it, but, David was a scrapper, one who loved to fight people, and that was his nature, one that nobody could change.

“Dwighty, I promise, I won’t be starting nothing if there’s nothing to start.” Well, that was enough, Dwight supposes. Although, he probably will be putting Bill in charge of security in any case. Just… to be safe, and to keep others safe as well.

Giving David a pat on his head, Dwight turned to look behind Jake to see Meg stirring from her curled up position next to Claudette, and he met the runner’s eyes. He moved the heavy appendage off of his lap and stood up, brushing off the seat of his pants and straightening his tie. He had a small speech to give, has to look his best!

“Good morning, everyone!” Dwight cheerily announced, trying his best to greet everyone with a smile on his face, trying not to be discouraged by the groans that came from the rousing forms of his teammates. “Good morning to you all!” He repeats himself to drive the point home, as if trying to vague to the sun slowly rotating behind him.

The sun felt as if it moved slower than it’s seemingly rapid pace before they fell asleep, as if they had slept through a storm that even swept the sun and moon in it’s high winds. The leader hoped the bright rays of the sun would bring everyone’s mood up and make his job of keeping everyone left together just a little less difficult. Once he assumed he had everyone paying attention to him, he found a flattish rock to stand on to get a better projection of his voice.

“First, I want to say thank you to you all. Each and every one of you have made this journey possible, and I am honored to be here with you all and start this new and hopefully better chapter of our lives!” Some groggy cheers arose from the standing part of the crowd, and Dwight ignored the groans of protest that came from the few that still desired to sleep. “Settle down!”

“But, now, for the more difficult agenda. I have decided that we shall be divided into two groups: one group will stay here and create a base of sorts since this area is a good place to have a temporary settlement, while another group will go out and go see if there’s anything else out there.” He had barely finished his sentence before people started talking and yelling again, both amongst themselves and at the man standing slightly above them. He sighed in frustration and tried to yell over them, but it seemed that the crowd was too busy yelling and talking to hear him.

Finally, David spoke up for his boyfriend. “OI!” His loud bellow made nearly everyone quiet down, mostly because they knew who David was, and that he wasn’t afraid to punch someone if they got out of line. Giving everyone a harsh stare, he made sure everyone saw him gesture back to Dwight. “Listen to this bloke tell you what we have planned, and then you can calmly argue him. Understood?” Nobody spoke, but a few nodded, which David decided was good enough. He stepped back down and let Dwight continue.

“So, basically, yes, that’s the plan! Ha...um, I think that it would be good for us to rest a bit here, so we can formulate a plan on what to do and where we go from here.” Dwight clasped his hands together and smiled brightly at everyone, hoping that there wouldn’t be too much of a discourse. Lucky for him, there wasn’t, at least, not vocal discourse.

“I think that’s a good idea.” Devon spoke up, walking over to where Dwight was standing and reaching up and giving him a pat on the back. “I’ll look and see if we can grow anything here or if the soil is suitable for any sort of farming while the other group is off exploring. I don’t think we actually need food, but you never know in this place.” Giving a smile to match Dwight’s, Devon seemed to give off that reassuring vibe to everyone there, and it felt as if the fear of the unknown among them diminished just a bit. Dwight made a mental note to thank Devon later for his bolstering words.

“I’ll lead the exploring party.” Jake spoke up for the first time since Dwight stood up, walking forward to make his presence known and accounted for. “I lived out in the woods for years, I know a thing or two about getting familiar with my surroundings-”

“I’m going too!” Nea excitedly cut him off, shoving her way up to where he stood, before realizing she might have sounded too enthusiastic, and settled back down to her slightly edgy perma- state, grabbing and holding her arm like she usually does when she’s been caught unawares. “I mean, you’re gonna need some way to make sure your not wandering around in circles, so I’ll tag any landmarks to make sure we just aren’t walking around like chickens with our heads cut off.”

“Hey, I’ll go too! If there’s any danger, I’ll outrun it and come back.” Meg went to stand by Jake and Nea, firmly cementing her place in the party. Dwight went to argue that he wanted her here, but chose not to, and closed his mouth and gave her a nod of his blessing. 

“Let me go, amigos. You’ll need all the luck you can get.” And there goes Ace finger gunning his way into somewhere again. Dwight wasn’t about to let the gambler not fulfil his one job to the team, so he sighed and waved him approval. Besides, Ace was right: the leaving group would need all the luck they could get out there in the unknown, though Dwight was fully planning on Jake making the final say so in who was actually leaving.  
A fidgeting from the back of the crowd came forward, and a meek “I want to come, too.” issued and echoed, and murmuring picked up again as they saw who it was: Randall Tracmont, an anxiety- ridden guy who surprised everyone by actually saying outright what his opinion was.

But, they weren’t going to deny him the opportunity if he wanted to go, and they all turned back to Dwight for his opinion, who promptly turned to look down at Jake for his approval, and that just shifted all the eyes of the group to the Survivalist. Jake hated being put on the spot like this, and made a mental know to give Dwight a bit too hard smack on the back before they take off.

“Sure.” He should probably say something more than that, shouldn’t he? “I mean… you’re welcome to come with us. Anybody else?” Jake was spared further staring by the eyes in the crowd turning to each other and quizzally inspecting, seeing if anybody else wanted to follow Jake into the unknown. To Jake’s relief, nobody else spoke up, nor offered themselves up for the journey or to question why he was in charge of this expedition.

“Well, that settles it!” Raising his official Leader voice again, Dwight voiced rang clear throughout the field, including the slight clearing of his throat after his exclamation. “Jake will lead Nea, Meg, Ace, and Randall out exploring. So, uh, speak now or forever hold your peace?”

…

“Let’s fucking go!” Meg’s eutheism spoke for itself, and Nea and Ace piped up and started cheering. “Why wait? Let’s just charge out there and best the shit out of anything that gets in our way!” The Swedish woman grabbed onto her Asian boyfriend and started tugging and pulling him all around, fierce determination showing in her eyes that Jake had seen enough to know that keeping her waiting now would only make her very agitated.

“It’s best if we set out as soon as possible.” Jake cracked a smile at the woman hanging into him, and pulled her away a bit to go over and lay a hand on Dwight’s shoulder in a friendly and comforting way, and made a valiant attempt to look him directly in his eyes, a feat for Jake that was nearly impossible for multiple reasons. 

“Dwight, I promise I’ll do my best to keep us all safe.” Looking back at his future adventures, he sighed in slight nolgastic and decided against his loner tendencies and gave the man a brief hug, giving him a firm pat on the back, and then let go fully. “We’ll walk for a while, then we’ll come back and try a different direction. If, God forbid, if something happens… leave a sign or note for us, okay?”

The taller man didn’t say anything, didn’t move at first, feeling sadness creep up inside him, something that was common felt here, but it was a different kind of sadness: the sadness at the thought of never seeing a friend again, and Dwight swallowed the lump in his throat and forced his head to move, his neck muscles tense and it was even tougher to nod than before. “I have faith in you guys. You’ll make it.” _Hopefully, all of them will, and in one piece._

Hopping down from his post, the bespeckled man gave a hug to each of his departing comrades, even Ace, the smug bastard himself, and everyone else followed suit, saying goodbye and hugging the ones they cared about the most. Gathering up what supplies they had hauled with them on their journey, the five who had volunteered to leave waved their final goodbyes and took off, leaving Dwight in charge of the remaining 21, including him, Hopefuls that hoped to start something that would last them the test of time.

Dwight wasn’t the most steady or confident of man at times, but he was the Leader for a reason, the reason of leading, that he knew how to motivate and push people towards freedom, make them strive to live another night and see the sun, the sun that now rolled across the horizon like a ball of yarn, tugging the moon with it (or was it the other way around?).

These people needed a resolute, smart, and courageous Leader, and Dwight Fairfield was the man the Entity labeled as the most worthy as that spot, and whether be cruel fate or a blessing in disguise, he was it. Feeling a surge of ambition and bravely, Dwight clapped his hands loudly and spoke once again, but, this time, with a end goal in mind.

“Since we are going to be here for quite some time, we all need roles. Since you all have certain traits, I think you should all be assigned a job that fits those. So, let’s start a list…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, hewwo there are more chapters to come, and i plan to keep these chapters at or above 2,500~ words. Comments and things are always welcome, and I appreciate every view and kudos I get and i hug them all. If you want to know about the OC's, backstories and characteristics and such, I'll post a link at the bottom of the next chapter, which will have plenty of them in there. THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR READING IF YOU ACTUALLY READ!


	3. Tug- of- War

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes going too far isn't far enough.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for my fren @m-a-s-h-t-y-x on tumblr for giving me the main idea for this chapter. Happ reads!

To say that everything felt great and wonderful and unicorns and rainbows would be a flatout lie, and not one of them spoke as soon as they walked across the clearing to continue forward, all conversations stopped and they all forced their eyes forward as soon as their teammates where out of sight behind them so not not make themselves want to run back to their friends and be complacent with the happiness and escape they have already found with the others. Ace saw Nea slow down just a bit, and her cat- like eyes start slightly slide to match the slow turn of her head, but he caught her arm and whispered to her. “You chose this, mija, no going back until we find out what’s out here.”

Except for the echoing slap that Nea graced Ace’s suit- covered arm with, nobody else spoke, not even Meg, as energetic and as talkative as she could be at times, was quiet enough that it made Jake a bit concerned if she was spooked or not. The quiet except for the light blowing breeze and the occasional chip of an unseen bird or other mysterious critter made him feel more at ease and peaceful, though, and it gave him space to think.

They first had to create some sort of travel log, or route marker, to mark where they had traveled, and where they were going. Slowing his walking pace to approach a large and broad tree, Jake turned to Nea and backed up, alternating between looking at the group and looking up to gauge the height of the tree, which he couldn’t see the top of.

“Nea, I know you have a spray can, and don’t argue with me or I’ll do it myself, but I want you to spray a band of paint as high as you can, then I want you to spray a downward arrow-” pointing back towards where they had come from “-directly facing that way. Then, go around and spray an arrow pointing upwards on the opposite side in the direction that we are going. Ah!” He pressed a gloved finger against her lips, stopping any retort that was about to issue forth, and gave her a wide- eyed stare. “Love, please, don’t argue.”

The Swedish woman wasn’t, happy, but did what her boyfriend requested of her, spraying the tree the way Jake asked it too, but not without a harsh glare and Jake could’ve sworn she flipped him off once,a dn that was confirmed in his ears hearing the group break out in raucous laughter at her blatant irritation. If Jake didn’t know her from their time spent together, he’d been mad at her insolence, but he knew she just didn’t like taking orders from anybody, her rebellious streak still strong after all the death she has endured.

And he loves that about her.

Soon, they were back off, off out into the wild unknown, with nothing but nature surrounding them. It was different than the trees and foliage surrounding them back in the entity’s clutches, though: these trees seemed more alive and less conformed, all in varying shapes and sizes, different patterns of bark and arrangements of branches, no longer the same type of tree carbon copied over and over again to make it feel more “natural” to the Survivors and Killers alike. But, it was a poor rendition of the outside world, and the differentiating landscape proved that and lifted their spirits so high if they had wings, they would have flown with their hope into a new world.

The land was flat for a while, but it was Meg who, in a burst of energy, called them all grandma’s and ran ahead of Jake’s steady but observant pace, and she ran ahead of Jake’s shouting for her to come back, which just changed to “Don’t go out of our sight!” when he realized she wanted to run ahead of them like an edgar and impatient child.

Meg slowed her pace to climb a tree with low branches, one that Nea stopped to spray paint to mark their journey so far, Jake nudging Nea once her lines dipped a bit too low and her eyes a bit too skyward to stare at Meg’s ass. “If I can’t be a thot, you can’t be a thot.” And damn it all to Hell, Ace just had to catch wind of Nea’s appreciation of Meg’s glutes and nudge her as well. “Mija, shake the tree a bit and you might get a closer look~”

“What do you see? Anything?” Randall spoke up for the first time on their journey, calling out and craning his neck to the side to see Meg scout out the land around them. Meg didn’t speak at first, balancing herself on a branch before she fell out of it.

“Nothing too crazy, but it does look like the land starts to go uphill in the distance. Straight ahead. And the forest doesn’t look as dense.” Changing land, that was a good sign showing either The Entity was secretly creative with land design and added scaling elevation and terrain, or that there was actually more to discover, more possibilities and options to see.

“Alright, then. Get down and we’ll keep go-”

“Is that a creek? Yo, holy shit, I’m taking a bath!” Once again interrupted, Jake just simply exhaled in knowing that Meg was heading straight to whatever she had seen, and Jake waved the group on in the direction that Meg had excitedly pointed in, hearing her jump down quickly after they had started off again.

Taking a bath wasn’t a bad idea. Even Jake, the resident forest hobo, wanted to clean the blood off of him and would like to soak for a while. Granted if the water wasn’t stagnant or brackish. Not knowing whether diseases were a thing around her, Jake didn’t want to take the chance of getting dysentery or cholera because of poor thinking ahead or sanitary.

Racing ahead of them, Meg darted past them into the distance where she last saw the creek, and the rest of them picked up their pace to make sure that she didn’t get too far ahead of them. Whipping past some loose vines, Meg parted hanging branches to reveal exactly what she spoke about: a creek, not too wide nor exactly running, but it appeared to be flowing downward, pooling in a small pond about the width of a truck. Meg knelt down to cup some in her hand, but Jake shot out to stop her, and Randall coming forward to inspect it, too

“Don’t drink stagnant water. You don’t know if we can get sick here, and the last thing I want is for you, or any of us, to get sick with some 3rd world country disease!” Perhaps a bit too harsh, but Jake was used to living in the harshness of the wilderness, and this was just second nature to him.

“Once I drank standing water, mija, and let me tell you, I was shitting buckets for days-”

“How about Nea tags here, and we follow the stream upwards? See if it leads from somewhere?” Turning to the lanky male, Nea spun around and shook her head. “I just tagged the tree over there. I’m not tagging here.” Randall shrank like Nea had sprouted an alligator head and he was Captain Hook, but he didn’t move from hsi spot, willing himself not to stutter. “But we didn’t go exactly straight. When we are coming back, we could get lost-”

“Por favor.” Ace came forward and swiped the can from Nea’s belt, and quickly scribbled spray paint, which, ended up looking suspiciously like a penis. “Magnífico!” 

Oh, Jake wanted to say something, but the words died on his tongue when Ace saw the look on his face, and made the tip of it a happy face. He couldn’t contain the wide smile that broke out on his face, and everybody shared a laugh over Ace’s… display of territorial markings, and even Nea lost her previous irrantance and slung an around around Ace, playfully punching him and snatching back her favorite trusty aerosol can.

“That’ll do just fine. Just hope kids don’t see it.” Quelling down his laughter, the saboteur slung his own arm around Nea, and walked forward with Meg wiggling her way underneath Ace’s arm and sticking her tounge out at no one in particular. “I wasn’t gonna drink it, dipshits…”

Surprisingly, Randall leapt ahead of the clingy quad, given he wasn’t too wild about touching other people and that was fine with them, leading the charge, who, after pulling out a flask and taking a swig from it, had become a loose marching choir, led by the now looser Ace Visconti himself, claiming to be singing something he heard from a beautiful señorita once. They had fun for a while, until Ace nearly faceplanted on a rock, and Jake decided to detangle himself, but not before giving a kiss to Nea’s cheek, leaving Nea and Meg to be towed around by the graying male.

“You would think since I’ve been here awhile I’d be used to that.” Randall spoke up softly, not poiently addressing Jake, but Jake figured he wasn’t talking to himself.

“You’re actually the youngest here- in this group here.” Turning to see the girls and Ace still making their merry way behind them, Jake stood on his tiptoes for a brief moment of unsteadiness to see what the creek was doing up ahead.

“Yes, but that’s still a long time, even though time has no meaning here.” The remaining light of the day starting to slowly fade, and Randall couldn’t help but get a bit uneasy: he was anxious enough as it is, but nighttime was always rough. He thought about pointing out the fading daylight, but it seemed that Jake caught his increasing unsettledness and called it before he had a chance to.

“We need to find somewhere to stop and rest. I don’t want to keep walking in the dark.” Jake couldn’t get a clear view of the star, but it seemed to be slightly higher in the sky, and it seemed as if the lower part of the sun’s circle dipped below the horizon, as if they were just emerging from the equator of the Earth. He was so focused on the orbiting satellites he wasn't looking down, and he heard and felt his foot slosh in water and jerked his head down to see the creek had expanded and was actually flowing downward now, the water lightly rushing beneath his feet.

“Hey!” Randall turned around and snapped his fingers once to get the group behind them attentions, stopping their swaying and swinging and swilling of whiskey between the three of them. “The creek is getting wider and it’s nightfall. Watch your steps.”

Ace was the first to start moving again, detaching himself from Meg and Nea, who were currently trying to chug the small flask and taking turns doing so, Jake slipping past Randall and Ace to grab at the two and to take the flask away momentary, telling them that they didn’t need to get drunk out in the unknown wilderness.

“Jake, it’s not like we can get lost when we’re already lost-”

“Nea, that’s not the point. There could be creatures out there-”

“You’re the only creature here with your looks.”  
…

“...What?” Honestly, Jake couldn’t tell if that was a compliment or an insult, but he shook his head and turned to Meg, who was swatting at him to get the flask again. “It’s been fucking ages since I’ve had a drink, Jake, let me enjoy myself!” “Meg, no!”

“As much as I hate to ruin the party, my chicas, the bird man is right.” Ace walked his way over to take his flask back from Jake. “We need to be on the lookout. Once, I swear on my silver ring, that I was so drunk one night I fell into Caracas Bay and a mermaid got a hold of me and tried to eat me, so let that serve you all-” Looking over his glasses, he fingergunned at everyone there, before grabbing the girls by their shirts and pulling them forward, pushing them all up the stream. “-a very valuable lesson.” 

He paused, only to twist of the cap and down the rest of the whiskey in one swift motion. “Drink it all before nightfall.”

Nea and Meg protested, but fell silent as an owl swooped low and startled them, showing that even though they wanted to get drunk, actually getting drunk wasn’t a good idea when not in a safe place.

One the final ray of sunlight disappeared from the air, and they only source of light was the moon’s bright rays, Nea, ran up and grabbed Jake, speaking to him “Is the creek moving fast enough so we don’t get the Black Plague, Jake? Because I want to get clean before going to bed.” The Korean opened his mouth to tell her he’d rather wait til morning, but with Nea giving him the puppy eyes and Meg looking like she would slaughter him if he didn’t let them, he gave the water a quick look over and decided it was fast enough that they could avoid major illness, if they existed.

“Tag that tree right there and have at it.” Was his only resignment, Nea looking to give him a rebellious look, but Meg yanked her towards the tree and just told her loudly to do it to appease Jake. 

Ace just simply jumps in the water, fully clothed and all, and dunks his head in, soaking his hair and face, and, most importantly, his sunglasses. “I can’t see shit, amigos.”

“Dumbass, that’s why you don’t wear sunglasses at night.” Nea jumped in as well up to her knees, and splashed water at Ace, soaking him and blinding him even further. “You’re gonna fucking drown yourself, old man.”

“Ey, ey, ey! You don’t splash an old man like that. Where are your manners?” Ace returned the small wave of water, soaking Nea and her beanie, and that just only brought Meg into the argument, jumping into the water and soaking everyone, incling Randall and Jake who were sitting on the banks, just planning on getting their feet wet. Randall stood up and put his shoes back on to shake the water off of himself, but Jake stood up with a grin, and grabbed Nea by the shoulders and yanked her into his arms, both of them squealing and falling even further into the water, and Jake didn’t have a care for how loud they were being.

Nor did he notice the heavy Fog rolling. But, thank the Gods Randall did.

“G-guys?” He stuttered worriedly, and he had every right to be, from all of their experiences on what happens when Fog rolls in suddenly. Nobody heard him at first, so he took to yelling, feeling fear starting to creep up inside of him. “GUYS!?” 

Everybody stopped then, noticing the Fog swathing the landscape in it’s inescapable blanket, and Jake drug Nea to shore and hurriedly slipped his boots back on. “Get out of the water! NOW!” It was not common that Jake rose his voice, but he did now, and even Ace’s smile dipped a little bit south at Jake’s urgent tone.

“Jesus, fuck, did It follow us here?” Meg harshly whispered in the darkness, climbing out with the help of Randall, nearly stumbling on the rocks. Ace, who was the deepest in the water, was the last to emerge, and Nea and Jake reached for him, but, they never managed to get a good hold of him.

“ACE!” Randall yelled and pointed at the water, a black form raising out and suddenly wrapping around Ace’s leg, and Jake’s heart dropped into the pit of his stomach when he saw it: one of the Entity’s spider limbs.

Ace’s pained scream as the leg dug it’s orange pricks in his leg, pulling Ace back towards it, and into the water, only the quick reaction of the group yanking on his clothes kept him above water, but it was hard, considering Ace was the most soaked of them all.

Ace was slipping from their grasp, the black talon creeping forward to wrap more around his leg, inflicting more pain upon the man, and Nea didn’t take it well.

“FUCKING TAKE MY GRANDAD TRY ME BITCH!” Nea and Meg both were screaming at the top of their lungs, Meg nearly falling on the slippery rocks and cutting her knees. Jake realized that they were slowly loosing this tug of war, so he yells to Randall who is tugging beside him, and shouts and order at him. “FIND SOMETHING SHARP AND STAB IT! IT’S GOING TO TAKE HIM!”

Randall let go, letting Ace slip a bit further down, and frantically turned and twisted around, spotting a very sharp rock and rushing over to grab it. Turning it in his hand, he jumped into the water where the black talon emanated from, and it took several sharp jabs for the rock to puncture the spider leg, but once he did, it exploded into orange flakes at the base, and it soon dissipates and Ace flops in the water.

The gambler is yanked from the water, and promptly lifted into all of their arms, and making room when Randall stumbled out of the water, and Ace pointing out that Randall’s hands and arms were cut and bloody from the rescue attempt.

“Okay, amigos…” Ace speaks still, though the pain of his tore up leg, and reaches for his flask again, only to realizing that it’s empty. “We listen to bird boy. No more drunken shenanigans at night.” A hard smack to the head by Nea and Jake both is nothing compared to the pain shooting up his leg, but he smiles anyway.


	4. Digging Roots

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They haven't even done anything important and there's already problems...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Also again thank fren @m-a-s-h-t-y-x for ideas and inspiration. AND I FORGOT since the OCs are in here now
> 
> https://charahub.com/user/KGStyr
> 
> The link to all the OCs
> 
> have fun reading!

“Devon and Claudette!”

“Yes?” They both answered, Devon turning back from where he had been waving at the leaving party and Claudette stand from her sitting position on a log, putting away her notebook on botany in her sack. Approaching Dwight, Claudette gave him an encouraging smile when she saw him falter a bit in his next words.

“Well…” Seeing the Canadian’s smile warmed Dwight’s heart, and gave him a confidence boost and he straightened his tie. “Since you two are the most plant- friendly here, I’m putting you two in charge of finding plants and stuff for us to eat or use. We don’t know if we need to eat, and I’d rather all of us be safe rather than sorry.”

“I’m sure I can find some helpful plants around here.” Claudette spoke softly but with resoluteness, already scoping out the wildlife in front of her. Everybody expected that of her, to be the plant bearer of them all, and even with as tired and wore out as she was, she would always be The Botanist of the group, and she would bear that tag with pride. 

“I’ll see if there’s any kind of seeds we can use around here. And if there is, I’ll see what I can do about the soil.” The young man, always excited at the prospect of farming or anything grainal, immediately skipped out towards the outlying grass at the edge of the clearing, after giving Dwight and Claudette a friendly smile. Claudette wanted to bound after him, but she chose to wait in case Dwight needed any backup, but also with realizing that David had now worked himself up front, taking Devon’s place, and that David would threaten anybody who tried to intimidate Dwight.

“Yes, thank you both! And, we shall be needing shelter as well. George, Mark-”

“These trees look sturdy.” George Hammond, along with his cousin Mark Neridez, had both been construction workers before they fatefully ended up in the Entity’s clutches, and were probably the best suited there for actually building a stable building besides Jake. Even though Mark was usually drunk and George tended to get a bit distracted in the line of work, they were both reliable for any job you requested of them.

“We’ll need something to bring them down, though.” 

“And something to make them into logs.” Nobody had to turn to see that Mark spoke, as the slight burp and ‘excuse me’ after he spoke spoke to him and his alcoholism that still persisted even in Hell. His cousin turned to give him a look that said ‘you drunken bastard’, before turning back to Dwight and nodding. “Once we get that, just tell me where to start building, and I’ll have it done.” “We’ll have it done together, Gman!-”

Dwight began to speak, but the smell of cigarette smoke suddenly sent him coughing. “Oh, sorry, son.” It was Bill, the old man had trekked the whole way with that cigarette still lit and in his mouth, still puffing away, puffing a bit too hard when he walked up to the Leader.

“We’re gonna need some lookouts. You never know who’s out there.” Taking a drag of his coffin nail, the old soldier patted his empty (and sad) gun holster. “I may not have my gun, but I can still kick some enemy’s ass if I need too. Not that old yet, son.” Just as soon as Bill finished his sentence, Tapp joined up and raised his hand. “Bill can be stationed one way, I’ll be staking out the other, and since I know David is dying to have something more envorigating to do-”

“Fuck off, mall bobby.” Interrupting Tapp’s factually correct theory, David didn’t say much else in the way of disputing Tapp’s findings, except to cross his arms and say his peace for once and for all. “I’ll stay in the thick of things, makin’ sure nobody’s makin’ any sorts of trouble.” He shot his glare at Wesley, who was known for being the group troublemaker, and being more prone to fighting than David, but even then David tried to keep his hands formed into fists for Killers, not Sure, a premise that Wesley got backwards.

“What're you looking at, Chewbacca?” Wesley spat right back, not afraid to approach David even though David was a head bigger and bread loaf wider than himself, he was so confrontational he didn't care.

“Don't act daft, Grady. We all know yer tendencies. Ye just want an excuse to stir up trouble.” David saw the smaller male grit his teeth and his knuckles turned white, but he didn't make a move. “You're the one who's gotten himself killed because he decided punching a Killer was a valid strategy-”

“HEY!” Dwight switched back to his 'official leader’ voice, and he gave the two squabbling men a stern glare. “David, you promised to act sensible, and Wesley, you knew that when we left, that we would need to rely and cooperate with each other to survive out here-”

“And what ya gonna do if I don't play nice, hmmmmm? Kick me out and tell me to take a hike? I'd like to see you try-”

“He wouldn't be the only one!” So much for good behavior, as the ex rugby player got right up into Wesley's face at the threat directed at his boyfriend, and punches certainly would've been thrown if Tapp, Bill, and George hadn't forced themselves in between the two fighters, and even that took a bit of wedging.

“That's enough!” Angrily yanking his cigarette out of his mouth, Bill to the responsibility of addressing Wesley directly. “You either act with some manners or you can go back with the Despaired and beat them up for shits and giggles, and go back to getting hunted and sacrificed. You ain't gotta get along or follow orders, but you will act civilly or I'll personally take you back. Your choice.”

The Irish- American backed down a bit at the veteran’s words. Knowing from his past experiences that deal with old soldiers who were still up and kicking were not to be confronted directly with, and he was never too fond of cigarette smoke anyways. “I’m not taking orders from that gobshite pansy parading in a pizza outfit-”

“Don’t have to. Just be civil and mind your own business.” Irately shoving his cig back in his mouth, Bill gave the man a squinty- evil eyed look, then slowly turned back to tell Dwight to finish up, Tapp and George turning with him but David keeping his side turned to the man who was as red- faced as his Irish red hair. David didn’t trust him one bit, not when he first saw him and definitely not now, hating the way he absolutely degrades Dwight and just about everyone else.

If Dwight hadn’t banned him from fighting, he would’ve walloped him one right on the smug side of his ugly face-

“I…” Yet again, another new voice, this time belonging to Gemina, broke through, and she calmly walked up to address the nervous man. “I can be, like, a recorder or something. For example, keep count of the days, our inventory, what major things happens here.” Ending with a shrug, brown eyes looked up for his approval, pulling out her pen and notebook from her own sack, showing her means of supporting the job she offered herself for. 

“That’s a good idea, especially once we get settled!” She was a good journalist, after all, she would be the best at keeping written records or recounting events, Dwight mentally conferred with himself. “If we’re here for a while, we’ll build you a little study to concentrate in.”

“What about the rest of us?” Feng had her arms crossed and had a look of impatience and chagrin etched on her Asian features, and she honestly just looked bored of all the organizational and managerial effects Dwight was doing, leaning on one of the others and tapping her foot. Feng’s restless attitude always put Fairfield on edge, swallowing the anxiety that welled up and her lack of fervor over his efforts. It always brought the doubt to his mind that he wasn’t good enough- but, he knew not everyone would love him or even have faith in him, that was way too unrealistic to believe. But, he still tried, just to make even just one person happy and safer.

“The rest of you…” Wow, okay, he didn’t actually know what to do right off hand, and speaking of the devil, his hand when to his mouth, his nervous habit of biting his fingernails coming back with a vengeance, biting them to the quick while he thought of something to say-

“You can help with me and Devon, or you can help gather supplies that we would need.” The gentle voice of Claudette broke through Dwight’s lapse in leadership, and she laid a hand on Feng’s arm, given she was one of the few people Feng allowed who could even so an ounce of affection towards herself. “Just because you don’t have a specific duty doesn’t mean you can help out. Just don’t be intrusive or detrimental, and you can have the run of the mill?”

“I’m getting Minecraft flashbacks.” Lips pursed into a sideways grin, Feng gave Claudette a sharp nudge and pulled away from her affectionate gesture and off the person she was leaning on, walking towards Devon where he was eagly running his hands through the grass, carefully inspecting the places where the purple grass was absent and it seemed that normal green or other grasses grew. The lithe woman didn’t say another word, except letting out a little squeak when she picked up her things to walk away for the hub.

“I’ll join them now.” Claudette announced, gathering her things and following the gamer, the look of simple happiness was given to Dwight like a precious toy, and Dwight yanked his hand out of his mouth and tried his best to return it to her, but it ended up with a grimace due to the pain that shot through his finger because he pulled on a hangnail. Well, he’s even fucked up a compassionate smile now, great job, dumbass.

“There’s some stones around. I’ll see what I can do about sharpening them and making tools.” George vocalized his and Mark’s plan, and proceeded to do just that when Dwight gave them the go ahead, the cousin’s both kneeling to pick up individual rocks.

“I’ll watch they way that Jake and them went, Bill, you watch the other way for any unwanted guests.” Picking up his things, Tapp tilted his cap at the old man, and went to find a nice space over on the opposite side of everyone, but not before pausing to whisper something in David’s ear, and sharing a loud laugh with the Englishman, roughing patting each other on the backs. Bill went his way, giving Dwight a half- serious salute before marching off determinedly to find him a nice place to settle down to take his watch.

After that, everybody slunked off to do what they were assigned to do or what they thought would be best for them to do, except for Laurie and Quentin, even Wesley wandering off somewhere with a girl named Lainey, a troubled young girl who made some poor choices with hanging out with Wesley. Dwight still stayed in the center where he stood now awkwardly with David, who had enveloped him into a hug and was reassuring him that he did a wonderful job.

“Alright, that’s enough gay in here.” Quentin wedged himself between the two and had a wide smile to match his wide, sleepy eyes, permanently baggy and bloodshot from a combination of insomnia and medicines and too much determination. Being violently hugged by David and pleasantly squeezed by Dwight, Quentin nearly had the beanie knocked right off his head by the friendly affection. “You two can make out later. We got shit to do now.”

“Quentin, language!” Laurie jokingly smacked the sleepy young man, taking the role of babysitter seriously when it came to the second youngest member of their group. “If you're going to stand around and swear, at least you're gonna do it while doing something for our survival.” And then she was grabbing his ear with fake tugging and led him over to where everyone else was scrounging around for anything of use.

Leaving the two men who had just previously drew the insomniac's attention .

“At least everyone is too busy now doing something to argue or fight. Hopefully.” A tiny shudder rolled through him at the thought of some of the more belligerent members getting too antsy or discontent with his leadership, but David's arm around him brings him some comfort, knowing that David would eagerly lay down his life for him, and vice versa. Drawn out of his thoughts of devotion towards David by a kiss pressed to his dark hair, he leaned up himself to eye the rose tattoo on David's neck.

“Ye know I'd never get any likes of em hurt ya or get near ya if I can bloody well help it.” Giving Dwight a squeeze tight enough to hear something pop, he walked towards, idling them both back towards the center of the clearing, pausing to grab his and Dwight's stuff, before leading Dwight to stand like he was Simba in the Lion King. “All o’ this will be yers one day, Dwighty-”

“Never thought of the Lion King as communist, but now that you've said it, I can't unthink it.” His half remembered knowledge for civics class served him well for his half hearted joke, but it drew a rough chuckle from David that made his heart melt and his stomach doing loopty loops.

“Be quiet, love! You'll start another upheaval!” If it hadn't been said by David and in David's tone, it would've held a different meaning, a worse one that caused him to chuckle, but, still…

That poor guy…

“I wonder what happened to the other?” It didn't take a genius to figure out Dwight was referring to, and David saw that look on the leader's face, the look of losing a teammate, and turned him to give him his full attention. “They gave up, Dwight. We couldn't stop for em, for nothin’.” The harsh truth. And Dwight didn't want to face it accept it, but in Hell, one has too sooner or later, or die from denial.

“I just… I hope they're okay. Whatever happened to them.” Hopefully, they aren't suffering or back at the campfire.

“But, fer now, ye got better and more important things to deal with. You gotta be the best damn leader we've ever had.” Words spoke a lot, but nothing made Dwight feel boosted like David's faith in him and reassurance. Made him feel worth something.

“Hey!” Devon came running up to the couple and was holding out his hands which were full of seeds. “I found some potato seeds! And the ground is good enough to try and grow some. We just need proper irrigation.” He was so excited he was bouncing on his heels, nearly dropping the previous pods, and Dwight smiled.

Food. They had hope and a future.


	5. Dissoance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Blood and anger are split.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> @m-a-s-h-t-y-x again cuz they give me fuel

_Nobody moved._

Nobody didn’t even dare breathe after all what had happened, even Ace fell silent after shoving his flask back into his suit’s interior pocket, only the stillness of the air and the pooling of blood draw anyone’s attention, specifically Nea’s. Swearing in Swedish, she ripped a part of Ace’s suit off, much to his dismay, it was his favorite suit he had, and tied it as tight as she could around the graying man’s knee, just below the joint to stop the bloodflow that was beginning to worry not just the Swede.

“Mija, I’ll be _fine_ , no need to tie it so tight-”

“Ace, shut up before you go into shock from blood loss.” Muttering harshly, she paid his light attempts of swatting her hands away no mind, and only tied the fabric tighter, making sure it wouldn’t come undone by itself.

“Nea, listen-”

“No, YOU LISTEN! YOU ALMOST DIED AND-” “SHhhhh!” Her voiced concerns had suddenly escalated into screaming, and Jake had shoved a hand over her mouth and hissed silence at her, not knowing if there were other things about. “I know you’re upset but keep quiet!”

Anger flowed through Nea like Ace’s blood mixing with the creek’s flow of water, and she angrily began to swear again, only to realize nobody would hear her if Jake’s hand was over her mouth, so she did the only sensible thing that she thought of at that moment, and she bit him. Not hard, of course, but enough that he yanked his hand back and gave her an incredulous look of _‘why did you do that?’._

“NO, Jake, you don’t understand! I’m tired of dying over and over again, and I’m tired of everyone else I’m fucking attached to dying more than me, and now that we’re finally out of that thing’s grasp, I’m not going to let any of you die! NOT NOW OR EVER-”

She had jumped up in her tirade, pacing around and her feet kicking up dirt and rocks as she went, nearing showering the party in more grime than they were already graced with after their harrowing experience. If Jake hadn’t been holding Ace in his arms, he would’ve gotten to his feet and stopped Nea, but he couldn’t just fling Ace to the side. Randall offered to hold Ace, but seeing the cuts littering the man’s arms and hands, he rejected his offer.

“Nea, stop!” Showing some sense, Meg got up to take a hold of the girl by her arms, and she shook her to get her to stop pacing. “Getting mad like this isn’t helping! Hell yeah, I’m real fucking tired of this too but that’s why we left!”

“AND IT FOLLOWED US HERE! IT’S STILL HERE MEGAN-”

“AND WE’LL KICK IT’S ASS AGAIN!”

“I”M GOING TO KICK BOTH OF YOUR ASSES IF YOU DON’T SHUT UP!” Even the crows stopped cawing when Jake screamed himself, his voice breaking at the last words due to his frustration building up from the two girls who seemed to not care if they attracted the attention of every creature in the forest when they are so desperately trying to avoid further conflict. He wouldn’t be surprised if the other’s back at the clearing heard all this yelling.

“Don’t you understand the term _‘laying low’?_ We just got attacked and you two are hell bent on alerting everything else in here that wants to harm us that we’re here and a tasty snack!” He felt trapped himself, the eyes of a million unseen creatures upon him, inspecting them and his friends to see if they would even make it though their first night alone out here without the benefit of traveling in a large group, were plenty of people would come to your help if you were attacked. Now, it was just them and they had little to fight with.

Storming up to Jake, Nea grabbed him by his scarf and dragged him towards her, Ace having to slide out of his hold to avoid hitting the ground. “You brought us out here, Park, so what are you going to do if it comes back!? It’s just-”

“You came along willingly. You accepted all of this when you left.” Stumbling to his feet, Jake wormed Meg aside to fully address Nea, grabbing her arms while she had a hold of his collar and scarf. “Did you think this would be a picnic? How is this any different than before? Hell, it’s better than before! Ace is used to getting ripped open every night, we all are, this isn’t different torture-”

“IT IS DIFFERENT! IT’S DIFFERENT BECAUSE WE HAVE A CHANCE-”

“Keep your voice down, I swear to _God-_ ”

“NO, I DON’T WANT YOU ALL TO GET FUCKED BY THIS THING, WE-” We… We, what? Her near hysteric state was suddenly replaced by stiffness, her anger slowly started to dissipate and drain out of her brain, all vanishing with the whooshes of blood in her ears, and she didn’t know what to say, but she knew what she wanted to happen.

“Nea-?”

“We need to go back.” _Dead serious._ The way Nea looked, Jake could only described it as dead serious, but with the lightest bits of panic in her eyes. “Let’s just go back, and we’ll be safer with everyone else.”

His mouth opened and closed, too shocked to come up with anything to say, too shocked that it was her, of all people, to want to go back. “Wh… why? Why would you say that?” Shaking his head, like the rest of him was shaking now, he didn’t know what to do, didn’t know if he should let her go back.

“I’m taking Nea’s side here.” Meg, coming back from where she had been pushed out of the way, stood next to the punk girl, hands on her hips, and stared directly up into Jake’s eyes. “It would be safer for all of us to be together in a larger group. Especially with Ace injured, he needs to be taken care of.” 

“Woah, hold on now, chicas.” Feeling like he was being talked about behind his back, Ace half sat up, half crawled over to where they were all standing, ignoring all hands that tried to stop him and tried to hold him down. “A little spider leg getting a hold of me doesn’t spell my doom. I’m flattered by all of your concern about little old me, but a little rest and I’ll be fine.” Flashing one of his signature smiles, Ace made a pointed attempt to talk to Nea directly, trying to quell the anger he knew she was boiling over with.

“I’m a risk taker. A gambler. Lady Luck has always been on my side. Even if I lose my leg, I’ll be continuing on with Jake as soon as I can.” He gave his leg the tiniest jiggle to show that it was still attached, not letting a grimace or a slight drop to his smile show. But it didn’t spare him Nea’s angry compassion.

“Ace, you… you would get eaten by The Hag and still would die with a smile on your face. You’re just going to get hurt again, and I-” _Care- no,_ no she doesn’t care why is she even angry? She just wants to go home, and, as much as she hated the Despaired, they took the brunt of the pain and sacrifices now, and even though it was at their expense, Nea hated that she was selfish enough inside that she enjoyed those turn of events. She enjoyed those fanatic sons of bitches getting what they wanted, especially after what Devon told them and what she saw first hand.

She turned to Jake, panic replaced with steely determination. “Me and Meg are going back, and you can’t stop us.”

“I’m not going to stop you.” He immediately replied, knowing it probably wasn’t the right thing to say, that he should rather be trying to convince her that staying together would minimize their chances of this happening again, but he knew his girlfriend, and it would take some pretty tough convincing to get her to change her mind what with her being like this, anger and determination mixing in a dangerous cocktail mix. 

“It just seems redundant, us being so hellbent on escaping all of that just to run back and huddle together with the rest like penguins.” Jake himself had come too far to go back, both as a personal belief that he should’t give in to fear and live like a coward, and both with everyone else and Nea, that he wouldn’t be happy until he had either found an escape or until he had explored every possible route that he could to find one, to the ends of the Earth and beyond.

“I’m not going back.” Randall spoke up finally, wisely keeping his nose out of the argument that had been brewing while tending to his own wounds as best as he could. “Look, why be afraid? Jake’s right: this situation may be new, but the pain isn’t.” He held out his arms as an example, shallow but still bleeding lacerations going up and down from his triphumant battle with the Entity. “I’m not that brave or courageous, I’m not a hero, or anything spectacular, really, but I’m not a pussy. I didn’t get all of this to just run back and lick my wounds. It may literally kill me, but I won’t go back and huddle in fear of every sound and movement.” Thrusting his arms forward for emphasis, it was possibly the louder the man had spoken ever.

“Yes- _hurghhk!_ \- mija, Nea, no need to run back, just run forward.” 

The Swede felt ganged up against, and she looked to Meg for help, only to see the woman’s choice in sides waver, and the athlete sighed and gave her a look of resignation. “We’ve come this far, Nea.”

“I’m not going to let one of us die-”

“Unfortunately, Nea, none of us has that power of God just in their back pocket. If shit happens, shit happens and we deal with it.” A shrug from Jake graced his response to the urban artist, and Nea knew that if she went back, she would be going alone. But, she wasn’t the type to just give up and say aye to any decision that opposes her desires, teenage spirit still strong in her adulthood. She didn’t say a word, but she plopped herself down next to the water, yanking up Ace’s pant leg and washing his wounds, blatantly ignoring his protests to just leave him be.

After Nea had evidently calmed down and started caring for Ace, Meg, Jake, and Randall all settled themselves down in the dark, the moon listing to their left giving them the only light they had, and tried to cool their heads after all that arguing. Jake went back to holding Ace in his arms, and held his tightly when he tried to wiggle free. “You may have Lady Luck, but you also have gaping wounds.”

“Here, Randy.” Jake didn’t turn his head, but he heard shuffling behind him, and the tearing of more fabric, signaling that Meg was paying care to Randall’s cuts, and he heard a _‘thanks’_ to Meg from the blond male himself.

But none of that compared to the staring contest that Jake and Nea were currently having and poor Ace was caught in the middle of it. But, until Meg and Randall had finished up and both had drifted off to a restless sleep not soon after, no words were shared.

But as soon as they fell asleep, Nea went for Jake’s throat again.

“Why didn’t you let me fucking leave, bird shit?” Stopping her nursing to Ace once the silver- tongued Argentinian drifted off in Jake’s arms, she slid up next to Jake, literally wrapping her arm around his throat and keeping a hold that would scare others, but not Jake. This hold was nothing new from her.

“Because I love you.” _Well…_ it wasn’t wrong. He did love her, very much so, and he really didn’t want her to leave. He wanted her here with him, to go on this expedition with him and to see the world and what it has to offer with her by his side. “And I knew you would regret it later.”

“Bitch, please.” 

“But you would’ve.”

“... Yeah, but then at least I wouldn’t feel bad if-” If? If something happened to the rest of them? But then, she wouldn’t have been there to kick Entity ass if they had gone on without her. Well, shit. “- if you had fallen off a cliff or something if you had decided to go on like a dumbass.”

“You’re making excuses, love.”

“No, I am not!” Whoops, she spoke a bit too loud as the others stirred at her loud voice, and Jake shushed her again, but this time no agitation was present.

“Listen, I know we aren’t going to sleep tonight, and I know that you would argue this until the sun came up, so let’s just agree to disagree, because I don’t want you mad at me.”

“You want some Swedish pussy, that’s what you want.”

“Ace, go the fuck back to sleep.” Jake’s head jerked downwards at the form that he was currently holding, fighting back the blush that was 

“Don’t let me stop you two from having steamy makeup sex- AY! Mija, I’m already hurt.” Nea had taken another swipe at Ace, and this time managed to knock his cap sideways, and Ace rushed up to fix it the best he could.

“I was asleep, but Ms. Hooligan over here woke me. But, I’ll get out of your bird nest so you two can go at it.” The couple started to protest and call him back, but Visconti had already slipped free of Jake’s hold and drug himself over to where Meg and Randall were, and got himself comfy on the grassy area that they had claimed.

Sighing in part embarrassment part tiredness, Jake let himself flop back onto the grass, having to make room a few moments later when Nea joined him, and he was honestly surprised that she let him hug her to his chest without smacking him or grumbling. She sounded sleepy in her next words of _‘you’re fucking nuts’._

“So, Grandad, huh?”

“Jake, I swear to fucking God, I will wait til you fall asleep to spray paint a dick on you.”

“Alright, alright. Just try and get some rest, the moon is already halfway across the sky.”

“I’ll try.” The Swede’s eyes lingered over to where Ace rolled over, where Meg and Randall both looked to be half- awake with how stiff their forms looked. Like Hell she would be able to get more than a few minutes of shuteye.

But, Jake was warm and his jacket was fluffy, and even restless sleep was hard to ignore, even for someone as unruly as Nea, who was still concerned for her friend’s health.

Nobody got much sleep tonight, waking up at the flapping of birds flying not to far overheard, or from the leaves rustling nearby. 

They all felt the eyes of the hungry and malevolent God upon them, taking no pity on the weary travelers.


	6. Siege

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The gay and the not- so- good

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This goes from 0 to 101 real quick. This gets real gay and gorey, ye be warmed.

If there was a truly happy person at the clearing, that person was Devon, without a single drop of doubt. Dwight was able to take a stand back from being the groups leader for a while and watch as Devon, and Claudette as well, instruct some of the others about what the suspected potato seeds Devon found looked like, and that they needed a place to start growing them. Those who weren’t occupied with other tasks became Devon’s farm helpers, the charismatic man showing them by example on how to neatly start planting rows of the seeds.

Loosening his tie after he had been slowly tugging it tight around his neck during the whole debacle of Dwight rallying the troops, he ended up undoing the tie completely, something he doesn’t do very often, and wrapping it around his hand as a makeshift bandage for a non- existent wound. His legs still sore from their journey here, Dwight felt relief as he sat down upon a rather smooth rock, slumping his back into a not so very healthy and straight position. His gaze cast downwards to admire his handiwork, reminding him of using the very same tie over and over again to tie around limbs to staunch bloodflow, but the blood never stopped pouring like an endless appetizer.

It brought back an uneasy feeling to his stomach, and he did his best to push the queasiness aside and focus on helping other, closing his eyes and taking slow breaths helped, until the inside of his eyelids started resembling the color that brought him so much terror-

“‘Ey.” He jumped, but a large hand on his shoulder literally kept him on his seat, and Dwight was blessed with the sight of his boyfriend sitting down next to him, and before Dwight could remind the large man that he had a watch to take care of, he was enveloped in a tight hug and was being crushed into King’s chest.

Not that he minded.

“Hello.” Muffled against David’s woolen shirt and jacket, he tried his best to wrap his arms around David’s middle in return, thought it was a might difficult when he was currently being crushed by a loving bear hug. When David hugged people, he made a new definition of the term ‘bear hug’. And he tended not to let go for a while. But, like stated before, Dwight did not mind at all (hell, David could probably accidentally squeeze a bit too hard and hurt him and he would still tell him ‘thank you for the hug, baby’).

“Oi, ya little rascal.” Heavy words spoken into Dwight’s dark hair drew his attention from David’s arms crunching his spine. “And ye thought that ye couldn’t get e’eryone workin’ together, they’re all busy beavers, the lot o’ ‘em, now.” The ex- rugby star released his boyfriend, and saw that his hug and knocked the nervous man’s glasses askew, and he ended up lending a helping hand in fixing them, so Dwight could look around and see that David was correct, that everybody was busy in doing something that was essential to their continued stay here, probably even necessary to their own survival, either it was Devon showing the others the basics of farming or the construction cousins making crude axes from wood, some string and a sharp stone they had scrounge around for, and where no swinging at a slim tree in their efforts of felling it.

Well, mostly everybody.

He met Wesley’s eyes for a moment, and Dwight immediately turned back to stare at David’s chest, but he still felt the Irishman’s eyes boring into the back of his bespeckled skull. From the brief glance, Grady had been pouting somewhere at the edge of the clearing in the distance, elbows propped up on his knees and hands lightly intertwined, while Lainey seemed to be laying on his side and speaking to him, way too low for Dwight to hear, but he could see her lips moving and give him a look that brought the nausea back again. He’s glad David’s chest is solid enough to block out most of the effect of the glaring from the two.

“Just wait til I get ahold of that fucker.” The Leader had heard that tone before, and instantly recognized it as David’s protective tone, the tone he usually used after he had been saved from a hook by David, who swore vengeance and damnation upon whoever was hunting them that Trial for hurting him. “If he doesn’t stop lookin’ at ye like a pie on a windowsill, I’ll put him in ‘is proper place. And,” David stopped what he knew was going to be an interruption from Dwight to remind him of his promise and held his hand up “-yes, I know I promised ye that i wouldn’t be fighting nobody, but I swear t’ God, if he lays a hand on ye-”

“David!” No hand in the air could silence Dwight now, and he grabbed his lover’s jacket and gave it a slight shake. “Violence is what made this place what it is, and I don’t want you contributing to that or even…” He trailed off, not wanting to even mention the possibility of someone committing a violent act and summoning the Entity here, their sanctuary, their first real taste of freedom in ages- “I don’t want you to accidentally go too far.”

“He’s right.” A new voice, one belonging to Gemina, sounded from their right and rang truth. “I’ve read the journals left behind by that Baker fellow, and it does seem like the Entity is drawn to violence and murder.” She took a seat on the ground in front of them, notebook in her lap and pencil in her right hand and legs crossed. “This place needs to be like an Utopia of sorts. No misbehaving.” The nervous man nodded at her, Gemina saying exactly what Dwight was hesitant and reluctant to.

“Oi, I can be civil, it’s Mister Anti- Authority and Common Sense over there and his prostitute that can’t be a decent ‘uman bein’.” David made no move nor attempt to conceal his finger jabbing directly at the aforementioned pair, and he’s sure that Grady is just staring harder now, too much of a pussy to approach Dwight while he was there. “Good fucking lord, even Nea knows when to listen even if she doesn’t wanna…”

“And that’s the problem!” Dwight would’ve stood up and began to pace if Gemina hadn’t been trampled if he had done so. “Him and Lainey won’t listen to me at all. How am I going to keep everyone together if part of the group just won’t listen to anything?” His nervous habit of biting his fingernails came back, his hand shooting up to his mouth to nibble, until David’s hand yanked it away and laid his hand on his lap.

“We’ll kick ‘em out if we have’te. We’ll send ‘em back to the Despaired if they can’t cut it ‘ere.”

“How would we even do that?” An incredulous look stapled on Fairfield’s face matched his words. “Wesley might be a bit of a coward when it comes to you, but I doubt even he would go back to the Despaired… and Lainey hangs on him like a wet rag, she wouldn’t go either.”

“We can make a group decision on that if it comes to that.” She patted her left hand, her empty hand, on Dwight’s knee and gave him a soft smile, which both he and David returned to the journalist. “But, for now, another issue that we haven’t given much thought to: time.”

She finished her statement by turning her eyes and head skyward, giving her attention to the sun and moon mirroring each other on their journey rolling just along the horizon. “I think that now, since we can see the sun, that time exists here, and that the Entity can’t control the weather and time enough to make it bend to its will.”

“It ain’t a normal day, tho. It feels faster than normal, and the sun and moon don’t waltz.” His chuckle lightened the mood, David’s bruised hand going to clasp the hand that Dwight just tried to chew on in his own, and they gave each other a smile of hope. Every little bit helped.

Gemina opened her notebook to the next fresh and clean page and clicked her pencil open. “I’ll start calling a day a full rotation of the sun and moon. When the moon is hovering back over the Campfire, I’ll call that midnight, and I’ll label the days from Day 1, the day we got here. I’ll record general information for the day and any important events or decisions. I’ve already got everyone’s names here.” Writing as she speaks like an experienced writer, she only stops to looks up when Dwight speaks up.

“I think you’ll be the perfect records keeper, Gemi.”

“And I think David will be a good deputy if he stops being gay with his boyfriend all the time.”

“‘Ey! Yer just jealous!” But the burly man gave his said boyfriend a smooch on his cheek and lips before he stood up, brushing off the seat of his pants and grunting as he stretched his back. “But, she is right. I’ll be goin’ now, love. To make sure there ain’t no trouble…” It was obvious whom he was referring to. :If there’s any problems, any at t’all…”

“You’ll be the first to know.” A shy smile came to Dwight’s lips, and he pressed one last kiss on David’s bruised knuckles, and then waved him on, which David took gracefully with a bow and walked off to patrol the area, leaving Dwight standing with the lovestruck smile on his face, completely forgetting about Gemina right in front of him.

“Don’t worry about them.” Gemina looked… conflicted for a few moments, before reaching into the pocket of his suit jacket and pulled out a pen, standing up in one fluid motion. “Here.” She held it out to him. “This was my father’s special pen, one he carried on him in case of… troubles.” She turned the pen in her hands, before pressing on the back part of the pen, and a small, retractable knife popped out of the top part of the pen, the opposite side of where the pen wrote. “Ironically, he never go to use it when he was killed, but maybe it will protect you from enemies.” 

Pressing the same spot again, the knife disappeared back into its holster, and she clipped it inside of Dwight’s shirt pocket, and refused to take it back when Dwight tried to return it. “You need it more, besides, I have more to remind me of my father than this pen.” The pen feels like it reverberates in his pocket with potentional, and he’s tempted to remove it just because it’s a weapon, and Dwight usually tries his best to avoid violence, even though that itself is comedic irony given the place he’s trapped in, but he resolves to keep it, and pats it in confidence.

“I hope I won’t have use for it, but… thanks, Gemina.”

“My pleasure.” There’s an effort to reply on Dwight’s part, but he’s stopped by a loud crackling noise, and then…

Screaming.

Loud, terrified screaming that reminded him way too much of the Trials. He and Gemina both whipped around towards the direction of the commotion, and saw a large, black spike with glistening orange sparkles covering it sporadically, raising up out of the ground, and slamming down on someone.

“MARK!” He heard George scream his cousin’s name, and Dwight immediately recognized the crumpled form on the ground as the drunken man himself. Mark has cradling his leg and trying to crawl backwards, back to where George was sprinting to him, blood staining the ground from where he had evidently been cut, and Dwight was frozen in fear while the spike reared back again, but running into action when the spike came crashing down.

Back onto Mark.

This time, blood splattered everywhere, the sound of human bones crunching was a sickening sound, and screaming rang loud and clear, people scattering backwards while Bill, Tapp, and David ran towards the spike, seeing if there was anything the could do to stop it. Dwight skidded to a halt next to the men, and felt…

The pen warm and hot in his office shirt pocket.

He yanked it out, and pressed the general area where Gemina had just showed him, and the little knife popped out. His gasp of shock alerted the men next to him, and David took one look at the mini weapon and yanked it from Dwight’s grasp, and charged at the spike where it protruded from the ground, screaming loudly and wildly, brandishing the weapon like a butcher knife.

He slid to a halt and brought the knife down, repeatedly stabbing the limb, over and over again, the first few jabs not breaking the hard exterior, but one stab cracked the leg and soon, David had skewered a large hole in it, a hole that grew and seemed to be disintegrating the whole appendage with it. The leg slowed it smacking of the ground and body, and eventually, reared back as if it was going to be brought down on David, the crackling that had been present since it’s arrival growing to deafening levels, and Dwight ran forward to pull David back from the impending danger.

But, just as Dwight had latched onto David, the hole that the scrapper had carved into it split wide open, and the leg stopped in motion and slowly vanished into fluttering orange embers, dissipating on the ground like ice cream on concrete on a warm summer’s day. Instantly, the danger that had shaken them all to their core had gone, and they were all left in shock and fear, and the happiness and hope they had felt before was gone like a snap of the fingers, just like that.

It was Claudette who first sprang into action, pushing through the human shields that Bill and Tapp had made with their bodies to protect the others in case the spike had decided to turn on them, and she ran to where Mark had bore the brunt of the attack, his torso stabbed multiple times by the orange spikes on the tip of the leg, and his legs were completely crushed, smashed to bits and internal organs showing on full display and severed in many places.

No Killer Mori could be even this brutal, and Claudette covered her mouth had the urge to vomit at wounds for the first time in a while, being the medic of the group, she had seen some gruesome things in her experience here, but this, this topped it all.

He should be dead. Very, very, long since dead, but no, Mark was alive, just barely enough, one exposed lung still somehow stuttering up and down, but blood and guts and bone was everywhere, too much for Claudette to even begin treating him.

“I’m- I- sorry, this is…” She whispered, but mostly went unheard over Mark’s desperate but useless gasping for air and George’s crying.

“Mark! Mark, please, we’ve come this far, please, please don’t die.” But everybody knew, and someone, multiple people were retching in the background, but all attention was on the dying man.

“G…” Somehow, Mark could utter the letter inbetween mouthfuls of blood. “It- Ent-” Lifting his, shockingly, mostly intact left arm, he nearly whacked his cousin's face with it, but George didn’t care.

And with one, last word, Mark Neridez fell still and never moved again.

“Hope…”

George’s anguished cries filled the clearing, and Claudette took her hand and gently closed Mark’s eyes shut, saying a little prayer for him under her breath. Dwight walked over next, and laid an arm on George’s shoulder in an effort to comfort him, leaning down to whisper at him, “Come on.” and lifting him up, only for George to sag into him, and collapsing on him. Claudette and David both rushed to catch them both, and the Botanist noticed that George had been stabbed as well in multiple areas of his arms and legs in a vain attempt to save his cousin.

Claudette sprang into action, tearing fabric and reaching for some of her herbs to staunch the wounds.

They had already lost Mark, and she’ll be damned if she loses George as well.


	7. Greener Pastures

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> If you get the reference with the rabbit I love you

Ace got the most sleep, though that was probably due to the injuries he sustained giving him significant blood loss from the attack. Meg and Randall, after nearly getting into a fist fight with Nea, both agreed that they would take turns staying up with Ace, making sure that nothing _else_ happened to the man who had already had a harrowing, near death experience that evening, and that Nea should get some sleep, along with Jake. The Swede didn’t go quietly, at first refusing to sleep _at all_ , but eventually, with Jake’s tugging and wrapping her in his fluffy parka, she relaxed enough to get some fitful and fleeting sleep with her boyfriend.

She kept waking up, _riddled_ with anxiety and worry for the Gambler whom she viewed as an estranged grandfather, ending up awake before dawn and washing her face in the stream. Strangely enough, she didn’t feel sleep deprived or tired. More like she woke up from a cat nap after a busy night tagging government buildings with her outside friends.

Her face thoroughly wet and cleansed, she blearily looked around with wet eyelashes obscuring her view for something to wipe her face on. She ended up grabbing something soft and earth smelling and wiping off the water on it. Or, on him.

“... Nea.” The sound of Jake’s deapan voice brought a cheeky grin to Nea’s face, and now that she’s caught Nea goes all in and turns and throws more water in Jake’s groggy face, to which he sputters and fails about.

“Nea!”

“Good morning to you too, Sleeping Bitch.”

“I may be a forest dweller, but I’m sure my rap sheet is cleaner than yours.”

“Thank God, because I’m about to go down for murder.” Jake had his mouth opened in confusion, brows furrowing together and eyes slanted, when she lept at him and playfully went for his throat, her hands way too slippery to present any threat to Jake’s windpipe. The Asian decided to play along though, grabbing at her shoulders and upper torso and trying to swing her off of him, but she held on tight to his collar, _refusing_ to be swayed easily.

“I’m about to commit a double homicide: murder you and that pussy.” With a show of strength that bellied his appearance, Jake managed to flip her over completely so he was the one holding her down by her shoulders, pressing a nipping kiss to her lips as he grunted with the force of his attempt. Jake’s hold over her lasted shorter than the kiss, Nea sending a knee up into his upper thigh and his strength sapped away for a second from the intense but brief flair of pain, allowing her to roll him back over.

She always knew where to hit him to make it hurt. _Thank God she doesn’t run Decisive Strike._

She parts the kiss with a bite to his lip that he feels break the skin just the tiniest bit and that and the look of defiance she gives him sends a hot spike of heat and wanting to his stomach. “Attempted murder, baby. It takes more than that to get into my pants.” _Tempting little siren._ ”You…” He gives her an auditory growl and goes in for a kiss, rougher this time, but the two are interrupted by a _thunk!_

“I know I said you wanted Swedish pussy, but that doesn’t mean you can have it, _vato._ Especially when I’m here and I can’t exactly walk away.” Speaking of which, Ace half- crawled, half- walked in order to retrieve his flask that had hit its mark on Jake’s face, but it turned out that he didn’t have to crawl all the way, Nea finishing the job and lobbing it back at the slow approaching man, whom it clanked on his own sunglasses.

The tagger had raised up for her position on top of Jake, resting on his heels and his lap now, Jake raising up as she did. “Listen, if you’re going to hit Jake, you better make it count, or else he’ll break everything you own-”

“No more alcohol, _please_.” A rousing statement from behind them made their heads turn, and they were greeted with the sight of Meg Thomas sitting up, leaning on one hand and holding her head with the other.

Dusting off her pants from dirt collected while kneeling on the ground atop and beneath Jake, Nea got off of her boyfriend and when over to Meg to both lift her up and scold her. “You should’ve known Ace drinks the strong stuff. Fuckin’ lightweight.”

“I am _NOT_ a LIGHTWEIGHT! Owww…” Stricken with a headache by her own yelling, Meg shooed of Nea’s hold on her arm and stumbled to the creek to wash off her own face, muttering about alcohol and her hangover all the while.

“You’ll have to get over that quick, _pollito_ , because the sun is out now, and we need to keep going-”

“Your leg, Ace! You’re not-”

“Actually.” The utterance of Randall quieted everyone else, and all the eyes present follow to where he was pointing, his index finger a guiding missile to Ace’s leg that was so _horrendously_ mangled last night. Randall used his pointing hand to gently tug down the makeshift bandage to reveal that the double- finger sized holes along his calves had shrank to perhaps the size of one’s pinky. Maybe even smaller.

“How the Hell…?” Scratching his chin in confusion at the quickly healing wounds, the saboteur walked over the where Ace sat and closer inspected his wounds, gingerly poking one hole which has ceased bleeding. “It’s closing.” Nea joining Jake’s side, she came to the same conclusion, as did everybody else.

“So this means this old sly fox is ready to go!” The beaming smile on his face displayed his eagerness, and he forced himself on his good leg to stand, ignoring the other’s protest that he should sit down and take it easy. “Overbeck doesn’t take it easy, and he’s in better shape than I am.”

Nea frowned and shook her head. “You’re still injured and your wounds could reopen.” She finished her sentence, turning back to Jake to back her up.

“...Ace, I’d rather you not hurt yourself. But, if you insist, and you’re well enough to continue-”

“I do insist, _amigo_. I’ll be fine, I promise!” He gave a slight hop on his good leg, as if to show his alleged wellbeing, but only ended up stumbling and grimacing when he put too much wait on his damaged limb, but, once again, he _refused_ any help hastily offered to him. Nea was about to make him sit back down, when Ace’s attention was caught by something, and he bent down and grabbed a long stick from the creek bed, and held it upright to lean his weight on it. It held firm and steady.

“I’ll use an old man cane because you think I am helpless.” He mocked, hunching over to drive his point home, before starting to hobble up the creek. Nea made movement to grab after him, but Jake grabbed her shoulder and stopped her.

“He’s right, we need to keep moving.” He murmured to her lowly. “If he falls, then we’ll stop.” He wanted to slink away at her fiery look on her face, but he held fast and continued on with her nipping at his heels with anger.

“I can’t believe you didn’t stop him, Jake!” says the woman as she follows behind Ace, reaching her hand out in case he fell every time he took a slight stumble or grunted hard in effort. Jake was supposed to support her, and there he goes saying Ace is fit for duty, never mind the fact he nearly lost his leg last night! 

“Did you not see his wounds? How fast they healed?” His voice turned hard but still, he kept his voice low, wanted to speak confidently to her, only for her. “Not as fast as back with the Entity, but way faster than normal. _We’re not out of the woods yet. Both literally and figuratively.”_ Says, even though the trees are starting to thin out just the slightest bit, more sunlight showing through the tree tops and warming the ground and the creek below them, rays of light refracting off the glistening water as if to show its pureness to those wanderers.

The further they walked, the lighter it became, instead of a seemingly permanent dawn, like what it was when they left the others behind at the clearing, it now shone like early morning, of course, with the moon casting it’s reflecting light behind them as well.

Nea couldn’t argue with Jake’s point, and taken to fuming silently behind him, taking out her frustration on tagging a tree, just as Jake had instructed to do, with the proper signals on it and all. Each tree harshly marked with her tags helped let out some steam, that and the hard steps she took against the ground, one which strayed too close to the creek, which had now widen and and was fast enough to be labeled as a river, more than a person’s height wide and deep enough to get your knees soaked-

“Holy shi- Jake!”

“Jake! Hey, guys, come look!”

Meg and Randall had come to a halt, and the others could see why. The trees had stopped suddenly, as if cut down in a horizontal line some time ago, to reveal a gently downward sloping clearing, devoid of any other floral life except more of the purple grass that had remained a constant factor of their landscape. They also found the crest of the river, the point where it was the biggest and widest, but, it also still ran downhill, giving the land below them a flowing source of water. Nea and Jake helped Ace hobble up to the peak of the slope where Meg and Randall stood to gaze upon the new unexplored area.

There wasn’t just purple grass. Down below, they could all clearly see some tens of cows grazing on the patches of green grass that was seeable near the banks of the river, and the sound of their mooing was carried to them by a light blowing breeze that was just feelable on the crest of the slope.

“As the eldest here-” Ace broke free of his Nea- crutch, and jaunted down. “What I say goes, and you kids need your milk.” Nea sped after him.

“Milk isn’t going to help when you fuck up your leg- slow down, old man!”

Ace could move fast when he wanted to, unfortunately, his leg still wasn’t ready to move as fast as he wanted to, so Nea eventually caught up to him again, this time her grasp was tight enough to stop him from approaching the cows further. Meg took off after the pair, with Jake and Randall following slower behind, taking a calmer approach to the surprise appearance of the wildlife.

_“I can’t believe there cows here!-”_

_“Meg!”_ Jake rushed forward to cover her mouth at her loud outburst. The cows nearest to the group had stopped when she had loudly proclaimed her thoughts and picked up their black and white heads, whipping their tails and appearing skittish, their hooves stomping the ground a few times and mooing with agitation. Some tense moments later, the stomping slowed and their tails stopped swishing so nervously to signal a crisis averted. 

“Cows are sensitive. Don’t yell like that, you’ll cause a stampede.” Jake warned her before he slowly lowered his hand that was covering her mouth, granting her back the usage of her mouth. Even though Meg rolled her eyes at Jake’s overreacting, she did grace him with a soft _“Sorry.”_ and kept her voice lower than before.

The survivalist took a step forward, moving past the athlete and everyone one else to cautiously approach the nearest cow, heavy boots padding across purple and green grass to raise a hand up to rub it against the snout of the large mammal, cooing soothingly. His _Calm Spirit_ must apply to larger animals as well, the cow giving him a overly large nuzzle in return.

“I remember going on a field trip once.” Randall spoke up while wiping away the air in front of him that had turned sour because of a downward breeze blowing up less than pleasant cow odors up his nostrils. “The guide said wild cows don’t produce nearly as much milk as domesticated cows.”

“They have to be pregnant to produce, anyways.” Asian features tied together in contemplation, he gives the eating cow a few more pats before dropping his hand and taking a step back. Meg watches the warmly dressed man back up towards her, and she unconsciously looks down at both her’s and Jake’s feet, and sees something gnawing at her shoe strings.

“Ah!” Meg throws her hands up to her face in shock and bounces back on the balls of her feet before bending down and picking up a white rabbit after detaching the shoe string it had in its mouth. “Oh my God, it’s a rabbit! It’s _so_ cute!” Cradling the tiny creature in her arms, she looks up to see everyone else staring at the snow white rabbit.

...Which had suspicious red stains around its mouth.

“What?” Meg questioned, her eyes trailing downwards to inspect the adorable bunny in her arms, and saw what the others were taken by. But, Meg saw nothing wrong with that, so she dismissively waved one arm and cradled it closer. “Rabbits have to eat meat, too. I think. Anyways, you guys need to relax, it’s not like it’s a killer rabbit or something.”

“Meg, rabbits don’t eat meat.” His eyes narrowing, Jake literally pointed out that fact that he knew to Meg, but the runner seemed to not care.

“Mija, that rabbit looks like _no bueno_. I wouldn’t take it, and I take many deadly risks.”

“You guys just don’t want to deal with it. I’ll take care of it better than Jake takes care of his hair.” The man in question obtained a miffed look and ran a hand through said hair. His lips pursed, ready to debate her on how unsafe the rabbit looked to be, until he relaxed his posture and threw up his own hands. “Alright, fine. But! If it does _anything_ -”

“Relax, Lorax, it’s just a rabbit!” Sarcasm dripping from her words, she spared the bunny a look for a second before grabbing it by the scruff of its neck and opening her hoodie pocket and pushing the bunny in it before zipping the sipper up to her chest so her new pet didn’t fall out. Even more shocking, the bunny stayed put in its new home. “Our new travel bunny.”

Nea poked Meg in her chest. “Meg, look at it- it just fucking hissed at me Meg, no, put it back down.”

Meg stuck her tongue out and shook her braids, taking off and dodging and weaving between grazing cows. Karlsson had a look of disbelief and a grimace on her. “I’m going to wake up one morning and it’s going to be biting my ears off, I just know it is.” But, the punk girl followed after her, taking Ace’s arm again despite his attempts at breaking free of her grasp, and the others tagged along.

Maneuvering through the cows, the land flattened out and all they could see ahead was nearly completely flat land, purple and green grass rolling in the light breeze. It was _beautiful_ , but resembled the lonely plains of Oklahoma: vast, wide, and isolated.

The further they walked, though the higher the sun and moon rose on the horizon, eventually becoming two sideways length difference between the celestial body and the horizon, the sun's rays glistening unrestricted and illuminating the landscape with little rainbows that rejuvenated their hope and happiness.


	8. The Pit

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They dig a bit too much.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey y'all, sorry on the wait! I've had a lot of other writings in the bg and my laptop broke for a spell, but I'm back now, and updates should go back to normal soon!

Needless to say, everybody was scared shitless after the whacking of Mark Neridez.

“This is your fault, Dwight!” _Oh God, it’s him again._ The voice of doom strong in Dwight’s head and self- guilt sinking in again, he _really_ didn’t want to deal with Wesley right now, but the Irishman didn’t seem to care about Dwight’s obvious distress. Thank goodness David did.

Wesley had marched right up to Dwight, attempting to get into his face and curse and berate him, but the boyfriend of the assaulted man was having none of that, _once again_ , and this time spared no expense to punch the fucker flat on his ass. His clinging barbie doll ran up to drag the stunned man away from David, who was currently screaming at the top of his lungs at the man lying on the dirt ground, cradling his bloody cheek.

“SHUT YER FUCKIN’ MOUTH! WE’D ALL BEEN DEAD BY NOW IF WE’VE STAYED, SO DON’T YE ACT LIKE WE COULD’VE HAD IT BET’ER!” Fairfield had to rush up and stop David from getting even more aggressive, taking a hold of both David’s arms and twisting the scarred brawler to stare at him, and not the form crawling away on the ground.

“DAVID, STOP! NO MORE VIOLENCE!” King _nearly_ ignored Dwight in favor of really teach Wesley a lesson this time, but the pleading look in Dwight’s eyes made his chest constrict. He was right, _he’d promised._ He begrudgingly backed down, but before spitting on Wesley on the ground and gravely warning him. “Next time ye act out like that, Grady, I’ll personally throw ye out meself.”

“I thought you needed permission from your little bitch boss to do th-”

A smaller foot halted any further insults as it _slammed_ down on Wesley’s shoulder, and a _pop!_ clearly echoed around the environment. This time, it was _Feng Min_ who to a swing at the aggressor, aka, delivered a dislocating kick to his shoulder. The cry of pain from Wesley was satisfying to more than just one person, and the gamer grabbed the curls of Wesley’s head and pulled then hard.

“ _Fairflunk_ isn’t my favorite person here either, but he’s the best leader we got. Fuck up again and David won’t be the only one kicking you down the road.” She spits on him as well and slams his head against the dirt before releasing his hair, crossing her arms and walking away, back to what she was doing before roughing Wesley up.

She didn’t get far, a hand on her shoulder forcefully turning around, but Feng was one step ahead of Lainey and reacted fast, grabbing Belinger’s wrist before she could slap her. “That goes for you too, bitch.” Min jerked herself out of Lainey’s grasp and backed off, not turning around nor stopping for anything else, and that seemed to get the point across, the coupe picking themselves up and slinking back to where they had been before, sitting in the dark shade and covering of the trees shadow.

“Yeah.” Nodding at himself, the scrapper smiled a lopsided grin like a cat that got the cream, and wrapped an arm around his boyfriend and spoke loudly “Yeah, we ain’t gonna put up with no bullshit around here! Ye mess with ‘ight, ye mess with me!’ And just for show, he took of his jacket and put on a overy done flexing of his muscles. 

It wasn’t David’s bragging everyone laughed at, but the little bit of drool that slid from Dwight’s mouth and onto the front of his office slacks.

Nobody blamed him, though.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The remainder of and the next day was busy for all. Laurie, Claudette and Quentin had gathered enough dry kindling to start a fire with Bill’s still lit cigarette, and they became the official keepers of the fire, making sure it didn’t go out or spread beyond the fire pit they had made. Devon had, with the help of others, set out a perimeter a couple of yards wide both ways set aside for farming, and had planted the seeds that Claudette had dug up in her botanical search.

Despite his loss and grief, George did his best to provide shelter from the group, but without his cousin, his efforts were slowed considerably. Eventually, they were all reminded that Mark’s body was there, especially when it didn’t just disappear or disintegrate like it used to back in Trials, and the talk of burying the man arose. At first, everyone seemed that cremation and a quick service was a good route to go, but that somehow turned into a full burial with military honors from Bill and Tapp.

George stopped with his lumberjacking to make a quick but sturdy shovel, sturdy enough that Quentin (who volunteered) to dig a hole deep enough that they could lay Mark to rest in. When asked specifically why he wanted to be the one to dig, he simply shrugged his shoulders and said it would keep him awake. And nobody was going to argue with an insomniac over the topic of sleep.

Laurie agreed to help with Quentin, George making her a shovel as well to assist him. Quentin did most of the hard digging, with Laurie standing on top, pushing dirt out of the way when Quentin tossed it up and carving out some places into the side where Quentin could grab onto and climb out if needed be.

Turned out it saved his life.

The insomniac had dug down to where when he stood up he was chin- level with the flat ground, and he stopped for a moment to catch his breath and wipe the sweat off his brow. Laurie spoke up first “Quen, I think that’s deep enough.”

A beanie- covered head shake was his non- verbal reply. “I’ll dig a bit deeper, just in case it rains, I don’t want it to wash up.” He turned his eyes up just in time to see Laurie huff and purse her lips, a soft laugh escaping her lips at his persistence and efforts, and Quentin laughed along with her before raising his shover back up and jabbing the dirt again, and embedding it with his foot apply pressure on the spade.

But, when the shovel pierced the dirt fully again, it went further than Quentin expected, and it _kept going_. Suddenly, the ground beneath him completely gave way, opening up beneath him, and in fear for his life, he let go of the shovel and clung to one of the footholes Laurie had made, but not before dropping nearly all the way down, arms stretched over his head and fingers tightly dug in the dirt, holding on for dear life.

His and Laurie’s terrified screams made everyone else stop what they were doing and rush towards the scene, nobody seeing Quentin but all seeing Laurie frantically scrambling and leaning down into the hole, reaching her arms down and screaming at Quentin.

“LAURIE! OH MY GOD, HELP ME HELP ME OH GOD- WHAT THE FUCK?” Even though he knew looking down when your dangling is the worst thing you could possibly do, Quentin ended up doing just that, and he couldn’t believe what he saw. Or, what he _didn’t_ see.

There was nothing beneath him, really. If he hadn’t had grabbed onto one of the footholds, he would’ve plunged into the bluish- gray void beneath him. Well, nothing that he could land on: there were plenty of different colored streaks and what appeared to be stars and circles beneath him, but it looked very far away.

If he had fallen, he would’ve kept falling for a long time.

“LAURIE!” His wide eyes torn between looking up at his friend trying to save him and looking down at the vastness of the space beneath him, he asked her incredulously. “Laurie, do you see this shit!?” He forgot about his precarious situation to admire the startling beauty that he’s currently suspended above.

Laurie, even though she was very concerned and worried for her friend, had to admit that Quentin was right when he implied that the sight below him was incredible. “Yeah, I do!” Twisting her head, locks of blonde hair slapping her face, she grabbed the shovel she had thrown to the ground and laid flat to reach the shovel down to him. “Can you reach this?”

Others had arrived by now, Claudette namely first followed by Dwight and David, all rushing to see what was happening. The teen didn’t dare actually take his hand out of the foothold, but he could tell it wasn’t low enough. “No! And can you please hurry? Sweaty hands aren’t going for climbing!” His hold was slipping just the tiniest bit. He had time, but he’d rather not push it. Quentin was relieved when others arrived to help, but didn’t appreciate the dirt that they kicked up and knocked over the side and onto him.

“Laurie, what’s wrong? What’s goin- Quen!” The botanist gasped when she saw what was happening, and she immediately knelt down besides Laurie to help, but was moved out of the way when David shoved himself up front with Dwight and Devon in tow.

“Th’ bloody hell is wrong?!” Taking critical evaluation of the situation, David barreled past everyone else and took Laurie’s spot, meeting Quentin eye-to-eye and giving him a comforting look. “We’re gonna git ya out of there, mate! Jus’ hang on!”

“I’m DOING that, David!”

“Grasp it harder, then!” The scrapper tried to reach down to Quentin like Laurie did, but saw that that wasn’t going to work, and he chewed his bottom lip harshly in thought, painfully watching Quentin struggle to keep his grip. The answer came in the form of Devon grabbing under David’s arm and pulling him to his feet and then sitting on the edge with his own feet dangling.

“Get a hold of me and lower me down! I’ll get him and you guys pull me up.”

“Devon, that’s not-” The now very nervous leader tried to interject and offer his two cents into why Devon shouldn’t be doing that, but he was ignored in favor of their slipshod plan being carried out.

David wrapped his thick and beefy forearms right underneath Devon’s armpits, and grunted with strenuous effort when Devon slid off the side and knocked the wind out of him. Luckily, Dwight, Claudette, and Laurie had a hold of him, while everyone else waited anxiously and reached out their own hands in offers of support.

Devon tried to extend his arms down to Quentin, but unfortunately, he didn’t have extendo arms, and resorted to sticking out his legs as far as he could to offer them as something stable to grab onto. “Take ahold of my legs, and we'll all be lifted up.”

“Devon, I’m-” He made to protest, but a piece of dirt he was grabbing onto broke under the perspiration of his palm, and he decided to hell with his doubts, if he didn’t cling to Devon’s legs right now he was going to fall into the abyss.

He swung his now flapping arm up and latched onto Devon’s pant leg, but hesitated in letting go of his other, still buried in crumbling dirt. _Could he hold on long enough to switch his grip? Would the weight be too much for the others above? What if he dragged them down with him?_

The longer more pressure was put on the area of the hole, the wider it got, and David could feel himself sinking slowly downwards into the dirt. “The hole is cavin’ in! BLOODY HURRY UP!”

“Quentin!” For once her voice raised, Claudette spoke her desperateness to her friend. “You’ll be fine, just grab Devon now! Please!”

The dreamwalker took her encouragement as his own, and he took a deep breath and summoned up all his strength and pulled himself upwards, letting go of the dirt and grabbing onto Devon’s leg. Quentin’s shout of victory “I got it!” earned a cheer from Claudette.

Devon used his arms to push himself backwards. “Help us! Pull us up!” More dirt crumbled beneath them all. _Time was running out._ Everybody who could lend a hand was, David feeling too many pair of hands to count start tugging on him and his clothes, slowly pulling him, Devon and Quentin out of the hole and back up to safety. 

David was a big man to move but he was even a bigger force to deter, and even though pain flaring up throughout his shoulders he refused to let go until Devon and Quentin were both scrambling up over the slanting edge, the corner of the hole now eroded and gone into the nothingness below them, and that they both were away from danger.

It was such a _relief_ to let go of all that weight, arms falling limp on the ground beside him, and his muscles felt like hot rubber from racing for hours on a speedway, worn down and melted from use. _But they were safe. Anything for his friends._ He closed his eyes but pried them open when he felt hands on his cheeks. Dwight’s hands. “David, are you okay?”

A heavy sigh from his exhausted lungs. “‘M fine, love. ‘M just getting old like Bill.” He planned on complaining more until a pair of lips pressed against his own and muffled any more discontent.

“You’re old? My legs just feel like they were rolled like dough. I got retirement home legs now.” Devon gave his legs a wiggle and flopped back onto the dirt. But Quentin wanted to fight for the pity title.

“I just nearly plummeted into space, I just lost 20 years of my life down there! Oh God, I’m actually tired now.” He clutched his necklace and pressed it to his lips, then promptly passes out on top of Claudette, who had just came over to check up on him.

David laughed loudly at Smith’s actions, but a quick smack from Dwight shut him up, reminding him that Quentin needed all the sleep he could get.

“Hate to ruin the love jerk, but what the fuck happened?” And there comes Feng again to kick the already obedient horse. Of course, she wasn’t the only one thinking along that train of thought, but none would speak that crudely. 

Laurie, being the only other prime witness, spoke up. “Quentin was digging, and I guess he dug too far down, and the ground just… opened up. To _nothing_. Just… I guess space? The universe? It isn’t just empty, I mean, there’s _stuff_ down there. I didn’t get a good look, I was so afraid.”

“So you glitched through the fucking map?” 

“What?” 1978 wasn’t a huge year for gaming, Feng had forgotten about that. She didn’t feel like explaining herself to someone from the dark ages, huffing in annoyance and shaking her head. “Rip Van Winkle here broke the world.” The blonde frowned at Feng jabbing her finger none to politely in the sleeping Quentin’s direction, but she nodded; she understood that better.

“Well, now, at least if he have anybody who needs to _go_ -” Min made it her point to turn and stare directly at Wesley and Lainey who hadn’t moved this entire time from their shadowy spot. “- we have a place to _put_ them.”

Nobody wanted to admit it, but she was right. So very, _very right._


	9. Moo Bitch

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Many moo moos and boo boos.

Inbetween sporadically bickering with Meg and Jake inspecting each and every cow, the saboteur turned expedition leader had to manage between keeping an eye on the _very_ daunting rabbit that was being held by the athlete and stopping Nea from tagging the cows, darting his eyes inbetween the two girls whenever he heard Nea shake the can menacingly, because they were docile creatures and they do not need the toxins that spray paint has in it on their skin to be absorbed into their bodies, and who wants to drink milk tainted with spray pa-

“Jake, I love you, but shut the fuck up, if I’m going to tag a cow then I’m going to tag a fucking cow and I’d like to see you stop me.”

_He actually did stop her, but not before she got one good and proper tag in on the fattest cow around._

Meg had paid hardly any attention to the couple bickering, too busy petting and murmuring to her rabbit like a new mother, the once fierce looking critter actually appeared to be calm in her hands. It didn’t placate Ace nor Randall any, the latter becoming a stable weight that Ace could lean on when his leg wound started to aggravate him, but Ace refused to sit down.

“ _Mijo_ , it is not that bad, like they noticed, it’s getting better-” Waving his hands, the gambler tried to pull away from the concerned grip Randall had around his waist, but Randall held fast.

“Ace, you leg is bleeding again.” Ace’s mouth parted and he looked down. “ _¿Que?_ ” The fresher looking blood spots on his pants leg confirmed that his wound was bleeding enough to be seen through his clothes. But Ace made a noise of nonchalance and chuckled. “My blood is like that of King’s: it’ll clot up soon enough.” His trademark smile was still shining brightly, stretching from ear to ear and radiating persistence.

He even held his grin when he took a step forward and pain raced up his leg, painful spasms almost making him lose his balance if it wasn’t for Randall holding him upright, but he pushed through it, making his way through the grazing cows and past Nea and Jake, until the tagger took eye of Ace’s state and placed her hands on his shoulders and forcing him to a halt.

“Hell no, you sit your ass down, old man.”

Ace tried to dismiss her, but she was much more insistent than Randall, and twice as hard to get past. “Nea, I am fine.” But she didn’t believe for a moment the gold- laced smile he tried to flash at her, and actually tried to force him to sit down on the ground, using her intimidating tone and stance to make Randall change his position to lower Ace to the purple grass, but then Jake inserted himself into the fight over how pushy they each had to be to make the other bend to their wishes.

“Nea, it’s not a good idea to sit him down in the middle of a bunch of cows.” Tapping her shoulder gently to draw her attention to him, then jerking his thumb behind him to a more open and cow- free area several hundred yards away. “Surviving a direct attack from the Entity just to be mowed over by a bunch of cows? It’d take the Entity, personally-”

“It’d rather not sit down anywhere, _amigos_.”

“You have lost the option to choose anymore, Ace.” But, stunning to everyone, Nea listened to Jake and helped Ace waddle out of the row of cows instead of just letting him collapse where he stood. It took Nea, Jake, and Randall’s insistence to get Ace to come with them without a fight, and the threat from Nea to knock him out if he didn’t listen to her, which Randall pointed out that that would be a bit redundant if she injured the man she was already having a fuss over even more.

That earned him a hearty punch to the shoulder.

Sporadic splotches of blood stained the purple grass beneath Ace’s feet as he was half- carried away from all the cows, and set him at the edge of the river bank a distance away, Nea immediately rolling the gambler’s pants leg back up while Jake and Randall helped to hold him still, and Nea asked Meg to help with rechanging the banda-

“Wh- HEY, MEGA-!”

It was a mad dash to silence Nea when she started screaming, Nea slapping her own hands over her mouth and eyes wide in shock when she realized that she had been too loud again, and nobody dared to flinch a muscle until they all held their breaths long enough to realized the cows weren’t going to stampede, their tails not varying much from their relaxed swaying nor from their constant grazing and moo’ing.

“Honey- you, just-” Jake made a bunch of unintelligible noises, lips pursing in a manner that Nea had come to recognize as the look he took on when he was about to lecture someone, but it appeared he had second thoughts, sighing and dropping his hands from her mouth and leaning back to support the man who he threw forward in his effort to stop Nea from yelling. “ _Please_.”

“It was an accident, Jake!” She screamed- whispered back at him, before remembering exactly what she was screaming about, and whipped around to look at Meg, who had started walking towards them when Nea went to screaming her name, and she was _still holding that cursed bunny-_

“You guys don’t have to scream, I’m not deaf.”

“No, but you’re obsessed with that rabbit.” Nea, being cranky as usual, reached up and tugged on Meg’s usual pick jacket to pull her down to kneel at her side. “Put it down and help me clean up his leg.” The runner actually looked a bit _disappointed_ to put her bunny down, but she did, gently petting the bunny once more before lowering it towards the ground and letting it hop off her hands and onto the soft purple grass, watching it adjust itself to its surroundings for a few moments before nibbling on some grass.

Karlsson snapped her fingers in front of Meg’s face to regain her attention when she looked a bit too long at the rabbit, and handed her a bloody rag that had been tightly wrapped around Ace’s leg. “Wash these.”

Thomas scrunched her face up. “We’re going to reuse them?”

Nea scrunched up her face back, and shoved them towards her again more forcefully. “Unless you want to start ripping up your clothes and running around tits out, I suggest you scrub _very hard_.” And that was the end of Nea’s discussion with Meg. 

Ace couldn’t help the sharp breaths that came with Nea poking at his wounds again, fresh blood still pooling over the receding puncture wounds in his shin, but at least overall, the wounds were far less severe than they were, and he took that mental note and nodded his head. “See? It’s just barely a scratch. I could get up and go now-” Which he attempted to do, but everyone else rushed to put their hands on him to keep him down, and he decided that we wasn’t going to win that battle.

“I’ll rest for awhile, just to please _mi amigos_ , but no more!” His voice raised in a dramatic tone, he flailed his arms to show his resistance. Despite herself, Nea chuckled and smirked, but muttered lowly at him. “You’ll stay here all Goddamn day if I think you need to.” A tap on her shoulder was Meg letting her know that she was finished wringing out the bandages as much as she could _(she didn’t do a pretty good job)_ and holding then back out for Nea to take.

Nea thought about washing them herself, but didn’t want to keep Ace waiting any longer, pushing her musings to the side to start rewrapping his leg. Everyone went silent save for the sounds of cloth rustling and the occasional heavy exhale from the injured man, and a indescribable noise from the rabbit Meg had quickly retrieved and took back into her arms to start petting again.

Jake broke the silence first. “We’ll wait until Ace’s leg stops bleeding again, then I want to follow the river.”

“Speaking of river…” Ace twisted away from Jake’s loose hug that was keeping him upright, and outstretched his left hand to gather some of the water from the river, cupping it into his hand, and taking a quick sip of the cool liquid. And suddenly, Ace felt like he was dying for water, and he fully rolled over to his side to nearly submerge his face into the river, mouth open wide to gulp down water instead of oxygen.

Nobody knew what to make of Ace’s sudden urge to drown himself, and nobody made a move to stop him at first, fully taken aback. 

It was the bunny that did something first, hopping out of Megan’s hands and into the river, plopping itself right beside Ace’s head, whiskers tickling his submerged cheek. Meg fumbled and tried to get her pet back, hands slipping on its slick fur, but before she could get a hold on it, she saw the gamblers head violently twist to the side at the feel of something tickling his face, and he _screamed_ and _jumped_ out of the water, reeling backwards and scrapping his hands along the banks, cursing in Spanish and crossing himself when he saw what it was that was touching him.

 _"¡Santa María, Madre de Jesús!"_ Sunglasses nearly knocked off his face, and hat nowhere on his body, the charming man didn’t look quite as charming as he normally does when he was throwing up water that he had choked down and inhaled in his bunny- induced panic, coughing to clear up his lungs and heaving in air that had been deprived. “That _thing_ …” One could hear the audible swallow from Ace’s throat. “... is going to be far, _FAR!_ , away from me.”

He raised a shaky finger and pointed at a fresh, bleeding mark on his cheek, “It bit me! _Mija, your bunny is a flesh- eater!_ ” Randall, who had remained mostly silent during this time, at long last spoke. “It does look like a bunny bite, Meg.”

...Who still had a hold of her bunny. “Are you sure? He could’ve scraped his face on a rock or something when he tried to drown himself-”

“Meg, there’s _teeth marks-_ ”

“SO, RANDALL?” The energetic woman’s affronted attitude started showing, along with her loud voice, but a frantic series of noises and gestures from Jake made her remember that they still shared the land with other mammals, and that said other mammals could trample them if agitated. “So? He was probably just trying to save Ace, because the crazy old man tried to _drown himself!_ ”

“I was _thirsty_. _Thirsty!_ Like a wardener in the desert!” He still was, but he was too put off by the rabbit to dare to venture to drink more. Meg started at him like he had grown another head and started speaking in tongues, but Nea interrupted then all by holding her hand up. ‘Did you just say you were thirsty, Ace?”

“ _Sí._ ”

“Like, actually thirsty?”

“ _Sí_. What are you playing at?”

“We were never thirsty in the Entity’s Realm. _Never._ ”

Everything stopped at Nea’s revelation, even Meg stopped paying attention to the rabbit and stared at Nea wide eyed, the gears turning over in her head, processing the new information.

“That must mean the Entity can’t make us _not_ feel hunger or thirst anymore.” Speaking lowly still, Randall let one of his hands play in the river, letting the water rush past his fingers while pondering his own train of thought. “That’s also probably why Ace is still hurt, even though we’ve given him better care than we could in a Trial and still make him perfectly healthy.”

The saboteur’s eyes narrowed, prominent Asian features showing in the furrowing of his eyebrows. “That’s… good and bad to hear.”

“Bad?” Facing showing her confusion and disbelief, Meg questioned him. “Bad how?”

“ _‘Bad’_ as in: if we can feel _hunger_ , then we can _starve _. We can _die_ , Meg, and I’m not sure if we will come back if we die.”__

__Well, that certainly put a damper on everyone’s mood._ _

__Words were entrapped their minds, too disjointed and incoherent to pass through their lips. Jake unhooked his thermostat from his waist and unscrewed the top, and dipping it into the running water of the river, collecting enough water to fill it up to the brim before clipping and screwing the lid back on before returning it to its proper place at his waist. “We’re going to need to start collecting water if we need to-”_ _

__“ _Shit, what about the others?_ ” Nea popped up, sitting up straighter than usual and a sincere look of worry marred her features. _She’s right, what about the others?_ “What if they get thirsty? I’m sure Devon can start growing shit for them to eat, but they don’t know about the river.” Blue eyes turned backwards to the direction that they had traveled from, and Nea stood up and brushed off her pants. “Actually, you know what? Fuck it, I’m going back to tell them, just to make sure-” When she started walking off, Jake raced to his feet to grab her and turn her around. _ _

__“Nea, you can’t just walk off.”_ _

__“Yes I can and don’t try to stop me, Jake.” She pulled away from him, only to be stopped again by Meg and her bunny. Nea unashamedly taking a couple of steps back when the red- eyed creature started up at her, Ace’s blood still staining the corner of its mouth._ _

__“I’ll go back, Nea, I can run much faster than you.” Meg saw that Nea was going to say something back, but Ace decided to voice his opinion to the group._ _

__“Yes, let Meg go back, and leave the bunny with the others when you go!” It wasn’t much of a secret anymore that Ace wanted that bunny gone, and everybody else but Meg agreed wholeheartedly with him. Jake pulled away from Nea to nod to Meg, and to gesture to the forest behind them. “You’re right. Make sure you follow the markings so you don’t get lost. We’ll keep following the river and wait for you.”_ _

__Meg looks ready to bolt, always ready to take up the excuse to go running somewhere, and, arranging the bunny in her jacket pockets, she took off, slowing down when she reached the throng of cows to weave through them, but then disappeared into the tree line._ _

__“Thank God that little demon is gone.” Wiping his brow of actual and not dramatic sweat, Ace collapsed against the ground and exhaled a sign of relief._ _

__It was Randall who had the dramatic flair this time._ _

__“But she’ll be back with it.”_ _

__“Now if Lady luck loves me, she won’t.” He could only hope and pray._ _


	10. It's Britney, bitch!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> New gurl who dis also sinster plot finally huehuehue~~

At first, Kate had been _terrified._

After those _things_ , those spider- like claws, had descended from the sky and plucked her up into the dark forest sky like one of her guitar strings, she had been nearly hysterical with panic and fear, fighting for her life, firstly against the claws that had descended to take her, then against that _hideous, unfriendly looking clown_ \- he tried to take her finger, felt him actually _lick it_ \- but she had smashed a brick over his head before he could and she had ran as fast as she could away from him.

She had kept running, not looking back once his dreadful laughter and wheezing was far behind her and out of hearing range, pushing past the aching in her legs and back from her brush with death, hair whipping against her face and shoulders, until she saw a soft but welcoming light out in the distance. She started running towards it as fast as she could, strength and stamina renewed by the sight of human activity, coming closer and closer to the point where she swore she could hear voices-

But, something caught her eye, in the distance, to the far, _far_ right, farther than she should’ve been able to see, she somehow knew instinctively, but yet- the new light seemed more… _appealing_ , oddly.

A nagging feeling in her gut urged her towards it, and she _listened_ to her instincts. 

She slowed her run to pause, to catch her breath, to set her sights on the new, very faint light off in the distance, to take off one of her boots to shake a rock out of it, before slipping it back on again and taking off, strength renewed to battle her panic when the silence and darkness of the woods tried to set in her soul.

It felt like an _eternity, forever_ that it took for the light to seem even a minuscule amount closer, but finally, it started becoming sharper, coming into focus as a circular spot, the sole light in the dark, and she whipped her head around to see the other light was gone.

She felt a strange sense of relief that lingered when she tried to brush it off and forget about it.

She tripped while she was checking behind her for the other beacon _(wouldn’t be a horror game without a bitch trippin’)_ , getting a cut and scrape on her knee and hands, but otherwise okay, but it slowed her to a light jog, the joints in her knees aching after her brief tumble.

She didn’t have much farther to go, thankfully, and she could clearly see now the wavering and licking of the flames against the smoke that quickly rose from it. _A campfire_. That meant people! Hopefully, nice people who could lend a girl a hand in this crazy situation-

“Hey! Stop right there!”

A loud and authoritative voice made her gasp with shock and automatically obey, heels digging into the dirt underfoot as her eyes locked on the dark man in what appeared to be a bulletproof vest and a shiny badge hung around his neck.

_Oh my God, is he a cop!? Thank God!_

“Sir?” Her voice shook and nearly cracked with relief at the sight of another person, and someone who probably knew more than what she did, and Kate watched the man’s eyes take in her form, and his expression softened when he did. “Not to bother you but… I-I think I’ve gotten lost or something. You see-”

“Oh, ma’am it’s fine, I know.” He slowly approached her, arm outstretched to lightly grasp her shoulder, leading her towards the fire that could be seen through the thinning trees in front of her. 

Suddenly, a figure _burst_ through the trees; a large and muscular man who looked like he had been in plenty of fights himself and was ready for another round, voice boisterous and full of concern.

“Detective? I heard ya screamin’, are ye alrigh-?” 

Branches snapping under his heavy footfalls, their new guest breathed heavily, broad chest heaving and he gave her the near exact look that the apparent Detective had given her: a sturdy, hard look that spook in both fear and distrust, and it shook her right to her stomach, wondering _just why they were like this_?

He tilted his head at her, and pointed at her with a quick raise of his large arm. “Who th’ fock are ye? ‘ow did ye get here?”

 _What a lovely introduction_. She hid her irritation with all the foul language as best she could, brushing some dirt off her legs as she spoke. “My name is Kate Denson, and I…” Memories rang back into her brain about the encounter with _that clown thing_ , and she really felt silly as she continued her story, recounting what had happened. “Well, I got attacked by a Clown, _a giant clown_ , and that’s not the craziest part!”

A soft, melodic giggle escaped her at the incredulity of what she was saying, still not quite believing herself that it had all happened, _praying to God that this was a nightmare of sorts that she had yet to wake up from_. “There was some freaky- lookin’ spider legs- or claw things- that just plucked me right off of the ground! Next thing I know, I’m waking up with that obese clown lickin’ my fingers like chicken tenders-”

“ _Lickin’ ya fingers_?” The more accented male eyed her with incredulously, but said nothing to counter her tale. In fact, he seem to perfectly accept her wild recount. He turned his scarred face towards the detective, and spoke in a lower volume than he had presented himself with. “I don’ remember there bein’ a clown one.”

“I don’t either. Maybe the Entity is still bringing new Killers in?” If they thought they were being discreet, _they were not_ , but Kate couldn’t make assumptions, not in her position. Thankfully, the Detective turned back to her and held out his hand, formally offering her a welcoming handshake.

“Sorry, forgot my manners, my name’s Detective David Tapp, but I’m usually just called Tapp, probably because-”

“I’m David- fockin’- King, that’s why.” Tapp’s handshake was nothing compared to the earthquake she felt in her bones when the bigger David grasped her other hand, rocking back on her heels to remain firm against the force. He didn’t seem to notice, or care and continued on talking to her.

“Wai’, didje say that ye were taken by spider legs that took ye up?”

“Yeah! Some spider- looking thing just grabbed me up like a snack! It sounded something terrible, too.”

And _that confirmed Tapp’s and David’s theory that Kate was the newest victim to the clutches of the Entity, but something about her tale piqued their interest, and Tapp used his detecting skills to prod further._

_“Did you see another campfire? Or another light?”_

_“As a matter of fact…” Her sharp eyes became sharper with suspicion. “I did. Why ya ask?”_

_“Aye, well… let’s jus’ say, ye dodged a bullet there, lass”_

_“No shit, Sherlock” A puff of heavy smoke permeated their little get together, and an elderly looking man in a U.S. Army outfit wedged his boney elbows inbetween the younger men. “Kate Denson I hear? Welcome to hell, ma’am.” He took another drag of his cigarette, then waved the group towards the bright Campfire._

_If Kate thought that she had had enough introductions for today, she was _not_ by a _mile_. There were so many others there beyond the three men she just left, coupled along with plenty of handshakes and hugs and friendly pats to be had by men and women who look far more haggard than she knew she looked made for her to quickly feel exhausted and a bit overwhelmed._

_Dwight Fairfield, a squirrely looking man who nearly everyone she met referred to as the collective “Leader”, and he certainly acted like it with giving her the tour of the… well, place._

_It looked more like a construction zone than a happy community center._

_The most memorable things that she saw was what looked to be foundations for buildings, the beginning of some kind of cropyard, and a gaping hole in the ground that was marked off by strings tied to sticks encompassing the void._

_And when she looked down and over the pathetic barrier, she saw why: _it was a void, a bottomless sinkhole_._

_Curiosity ran rampant. “Why in the world is there a bottomless pit?”_

_The bespectacled man’s chipper face suddenly took a more sullen look at her question, and Kate immediately regretted asking it, especially when she heard the answer. “Well, it’s kinda sad, but… one of our friends died, and we were going to bury him. We started digging and… welp, the Earth opened up, and we almost lost _another_ friend in the process. So,” Dwight clapped his hands, startling Kate of her mental vision of what could have possibly transpired down there, the terror that it must’ve evoked…_

_“Sorry if that’s not much of an tour. As you can see there’s not much here. But we’re working diligently on it!” Bless his heart, he seemed to be proud of all that they had, and Kate couldn’t suppress the small, radiant smile that blossomed across her face, and she gave him a small and brief hug._

_“You certainly seem like the guy to help everyone to get it done!” To Dwight, Kate was like a bright ray of sunshine in the dark, the outliner between the perfectly balanced moon and sun rotating around in the sky, her mere presence brought a burst of hope to his chest, and he knows for certain that some of the others more downtrodden look just a slight bit brighter in this hellish place._

_And she was pretty, too. But that’s not what he was about._

_He steps back to beckon her towards another area that he wants to show her, most likely to show her how far to stay within the circle, when he tripped over something that was _certainly not there before_ , and that reverbated when his leg flew over it._

_“What is- hey, my guitar!”_

_Kate rushed to help Dwight stagger to his feet. After brushing him off and making sure he was okay, she bent down to retrieve her newfound treasured item. _She did not remember running through the woods with it_._

_And that realization threw her off even more._

_“You have a guitar?” Righting his glasses, the Leader straighten his tie and tentatively ran a hand along the neck of the instrument taking careful note of the fine details in the woodwork. “I didn’t see it with you.”_

_“I didn’t take it, I’m sure I was too busy runnin’ to grab it.” _So where did it come from_? She turns it over in her hands, her eyes automatically locking onto the spot where a mother of pearl was lovingly inlaid years ago by her own grandmother before she left to wander the roads of America to sing to crowds that would often be left misty- eyed._

_Her initials are where they usually are, but the whole thing seems… _off, somehow_. But she doesn’t bring it up, as if afraid that saying something would take it away from her._

_So she did what she did best, and strummed a few notes with a familiar hum._

__“Rise and shine, work hard, carve out your name,_   
_Take aim, pull the trigger, hit the bulls eye for fame,_   
_Know the value of faith, an’ family, and don’t you complain,_   
_Open wide, your windows of opportunity”_ _

_Kate hadn’t realized that she had started a gathering, everybody stopping what they were doing to _stare_ and _listen_ , to figure out where the source of the beautiful singing was, _like a hopeful songbird chirping their notes in the midst of winter to keep its spirit for spring.__

_Raising her voice when she _did_ take notice, her smile grew wider to match everyone else’s, some of them even clapping or humming or tapping their foot along to her song. The whole place seemed brighter for the whole duration, as if the claws of the Entity were finally and truly pushed back for good._

_For a few moments, they had all forgotten about all their hardships._

_“Damn, that was some good shit!” The red haired and faced Meg poked her braided head up, rushing over breathless to give her a friendly high five. “You sound like Beyoncé- hell, you sound a lot better than Beyoncé!”_

_“Are you kidding, Meg? She sounds like an Angel!”_

_“Thanks, y’all!” She could barely get a word in edgewise, almost fighting her way inbetween the throng of fellow Survivors who wanted to congratulate her on her vocal prowess to stand in the middle of them._

_“I think I came in just at the right time- seemed like y’all needed a pick-me-up.” _It’s what she lived for.__

__“It’s Britney, bitch!”_ _

_“Feng Min, language!”_

_~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~_

_“Oh, look a new whore.”_

_Nursing an aching head, Wesley _really_ didn’t want to hear Lainey talk right now, but it’s _what_ she said that made his brief burst of irritation dissipate. He rose up from his crippled state, and squinted his eyes towards where Lainey was pointing._

_“There is.” _God Almighty, there’s more of them.__

_“She looks like a trailer thot, I mean, she looks like she’s wearing a _bandanna_ -”_

_“ _Ye sound like one yeself right now._ ” He thought he had muttered low enough to avoid her detection, _but like a nagging bat_ , she shoved his shoulder with a disgusted huff.”_

_“You know-” _Oh, he really wanted to tell her to shut up, but she had that tone of voice to know that she was planning something devious_. “-she appeared right after that drunk died.”_

_“‘Ey, he might have been a drunk, but I’m Irish and I gotta resp’ct that. He could drink like nobody’s damn business-”_

_“ANYWAYS-” _Rude bitch_. “-Its got me thinking-” _Rare_. “What if, the spider thing sent her as a replacement?”_

__Oh?_ “... ye know, ye actually might not be wrong on that, love.”_

_“Precisely. And-” She drapes herself over him, sparring his neck when she sees him wince. “-what do you suppose would happen if _someone else_ was to, oh, I don’t know, have an accident? Namely, some of the more _annoying ones_?”_

_“Go on.”_

_“And, if they don’t _survive_ the accident, I guess the spider thing will send another replacement, maybe someone more of our ilk. Or, perhaps, after a while, there won’t be anymore replacements left to send.”_

_“Ye know what your implying, don’t ya?” Him, the true pimp of the two, sounded incredulos, voice low and husky with shock and a bit of hesitation. He’s killed before on the outside, but in here, it’s _different_. “‘e don’t even know if Mark is truly dead. And, that would take a _lot_ o’ planning, sweeth’art.”_

_“That’s why we’re gonna wait, let you lick your wounds, and lie in wait.” If he didn’t have a probable concussion, he’d probably fuck her right where she was right about now._

_“Killin’ like how your implyin’ takes time, and one littl’ fock up means that _we get killed_.”_

_“Oh, please, Dwight ain’t got no balls-”_

_“Oh, yes he does, love, yes he does. I’ve seen ‘im leave some of the soddier ones behind before. If we go thru with this, and we get caught- he’ll ‘ave our heads.”_

_“That’s why we gotta make sure he doesn’t suspect us. Now here, I snuck some gin, drink some and knock yourself out.”_

__She's crazy. God, I do love her."_ _


	11. Replacement

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ayyy its me, trying to catch up with this au with all the new bois and gurls so i did this
> 
> i still dont have a firm plot with this, but i do kinda know how i want it to end up, and I'm going to start really working on this series so i can finish it up (eventually). it's a little less than half done, and im kinda getting hype about doing this series. there will be some smutty chapters (ofc it me what did u expect) coming up in the future but it won't be a whole chapter long of poon, mostly just for a lil bit of plot
> 
> as always, ilu all smooch smooch and i love all the comments nut dabs

Now, Ace respected his friends enough to set still when they told him to, but they could only keep him down for so long. “Nea, _churro_ , I can waddle! Look-” The gambler gets to a shaky stand, and _does_ , in fact, waddle along the river- until he nearly trips over his own two feet and drowns himself. The woman he calls attention to shrieks when he stumbles, and he feels his arms being toughly tugged and suddenly, he’s got a great view of the duel sun and moon.

“Ace, are you trying to kill yourself!?”

“Ah, didn’t little Min say something about _‘dying and being dead’_?”

The two other men laughed outloud, especially Jake for some ungodly reason, whose face quickly turned dark read from how hard he was wheezing. Even Nea couldn’t stop the smile on her face from debuting, and it made her smack Ace even harder. “I don’t care what _she_ does, but _you_ are not dying.” Ace makes another move to get up, but Randall’s hand on his shoulder keeps him from trying again.

Soft voice through pale lips convinces the gambler to halt. “If you keep trying, you’ll injure yourself worse, and then we’ll all be stuck taking care of you.” Unspoken, but Ace knew what he was implying: _you don’t want to actually upset Nea._

A temporary silence falls over the group except for the sound of the river movements and the soft braying of the cows until Jake stands up. “We do need to keep moving. Hmmmm…” He rubs his chin for a moment, before gesturing to Randall and Nea. “Can you to help Ace walk?”

The Swede’s lips turned downwards. “Jake, he doesn’t need to be walking now-”

“But we _have_ to keep moving.” he leaned closer to her, talking much lower than he just had been. _“The Entity could be following us.”_ Leaning back, Jake could see her features shift, eyes widening for a brief moment, then shaking her head as if to erase her sudden understanding, then leaned down to wrap an arm under Ace’s shoulder, motioning for Randall to do the same.

It’s a hassle to get Ace upright and steady enough to where he wasn’t in danger of pulling Nea or Randall down with him, and he’s able to keep his weight off his injured leg and hobble along the soggy banks of the river, slowly following it upwards the low hill, stopping every few feet to let the heavyweight trio catch their breaths while Jake walked out, scouting out the scene up ahead.

It wasn’t a giant hill to surmount, he could walk up it with relative ease and could see the barest hints of the tops of the trees, but high enough to block his view of the ground on the other side, hindering his view of where the river winded to. To his luck, it kept going, and actually widened out to be a sizeable, fully flowing river, wide enough that it would probably require a ferry or boat to cross its waters.

Flowing rivers were a good sign- it meant the water was cleaner, that there were likely fish _(a good source of food)_ , and the land around it was likely fertile. Jake’s mind flashes back to Devon, and he thinks to himself that the young man would probably be _enthralled_ by the sight and landscape and the _promises_ that laid bare before him.

Hands unconsciously on his hips lowered to his side when he heard the huffing and puffing of the other three coming up behind them, and Jake walks forward to help Ace waddle those last few steps till they can set him down on the crest of hillock. The survivalist sighs, a trace of a smile on his face. “Even with the random spider legs stabbing us… it’s beautiful.”

“Yeah, because Entity jizz really spruces up the place.” Four sets of laughter ringing through the environment, Nea made sure the luckiest bastard alive didn’t hit the ground too hard, and then sat down cross-legged besides him, reaching for his flask inside his jacket and taking a small swig that earned her a glare from her boyfriend. “Hey, furry?”

“Yes, furry-fucker?”

“Wh- _okay, she couldn’t even deny that_ \- do you think that the Entity had a limit on how far it can reach in here, or…” Pausing to take another sip before Ace took it away from her again, her head tilted to the side while her brows drawn together. “Or do you think we can’t outrun it? I mean, like we concluded earlier, we’re hungry and thirsty and shit: we’re out of _magical_ reach, but _physical_ reach?” Jake turned to the side, facing away from her for the time that he thought about her inquiry, his own brows furrowing and eyes becoming more slanted than usual.

“As long…” He paused, adjusting his jacket in a nervous tick while he continued. “As we’re within its _Realm_ , I assume we’re vulnerable to attacks from it.” Jake ignored an offer from the gambler to have a shot of alcohol from his flask, and instead drank from his own thermos.

Randall interjected. “But the Entity was weakening. Wouldn’t its magical and actual reach be the same? And in that case, wouldn’t the world have _actually_ ended by now?”

“We must be somewhere inbetween, then. It’s obviously _trying_ to get us, but it can’t.”

 _“Vato is onto something then.”_ For some odd reason, Ace’s voice sounded suspiciously ominous instead of its usual charismatic lightness. “It’s trying to get us back, but cannot because we are either too far for a serious attempt or it is too weak to _really_ try.”

“Then why didn’t it stop us from leaving, but now it is?” The Swede nervously shakes her spray can- she’d never admit it, but they all had valid points- _scary_ valid points. She’d rather them not talk about it at all, but she figures it’s gotta be discussed eventually. “It’s probably having a field day with all the Despaired still there-”

“The Entity needs _hope; emotions_ , remember?” Randall stands up, placing a hand on Nea’s arm to get her to stop shaking her can to the point where he was afraid she might break it: she hissed at him, and he immediately retracted his hand, but she stopped her incessant shaking. “They have more of _fanaticism_ than hope; they want to die, remember? The Entity needs us to have hope and optimism that one day we’ll escape for good: the Despaired doesn’t have that.”

“Like eating an empty husk.” Huffing, Nea brushed off her legs, and moved to pick Ace back up, making sure he didn’t accidently tip over into the river. “Honestly? I think It said _‘good riddance’ _but then realized it needed us back and is tryna get back to us like a thot-”__

__“A literal man-eating thot. Sounds like someone I know.” The saboteur couldn’t resist making that joke, and he couldn’t resist the smack he got in return for making such an insulting quip, Nea grabbing his collar with her free hand in a death grip, giving it a harsh tug. “You haven’t _seen_ me go full savage yet; I’ll eat you alive buddy and you won’t be nuttin’ from it.”_ _

__“Ha!- That’s what you _think_.”_ _

__“ _Por favor_ \- please, I do not need to hear that from my _sobrina_ and my hobo _amigo_!” He feigns swooning. “Is too much for my ears to hear!” Pushing himself forward with the help of his two loyal elfs, he starts his slow trod down the hillock into the rolling plains below with Jake leading the charge._ _

__There was a tree along the banks some 500 feet downstream that the group next stopped at, letting Ace lean up against the tree to recapture his breath and to inspect his leg, Jake doing him a favor by unwrapping the makeshift coverings and dipping them in the river, scrubbing at them as hard as he could to remove as much blood as he could to keep them clean until they started to resemble the color of Meg’s red letterman jacket._ _

__He thinks about Meg while he scrubs, gauging about how long would it take her to run back to the other group, tell them that they were susceptible to hunger and thirst, and then run back _(hopefully without Mr. Rabbit in tow). It shouldn’t be too long, perhaps another night-__ _

__His head jerks up from its bowed position, and he jumps up, spooking everybody else. “Meg’s in danger.”_ _

__“Jake, Jesus fuck, calm down-”_ _

__“Ace got attacked in those woods.”_ _

__“... AND YOU LET HER GO BACK YOU DUMB CUNT?!” Nea’s own eyes light up in realization at what Jake was implying, and she shakes him violently, watching as his eyes rattled around in his head with a small sense of gratefulness that he realized how _fucked_ Meg was until he gathers enough strength to stop her. “I didn’t remember, and neither did you!”_ _

__Shaking her beanie-clad head, she gives him a rough shove out of a sudden rise in anger, the bare idea of Meg being put in danger like that, _alone_ , sending her temper to a boiling point. “Your supposed to be our _guide_ , IT’S YOUR FAULT IF SHE GETS HURT!” She shoved him again, and this time Jake fell backwards, hands grappling at the grass underneath him as she kept advancing. _Oh, how his anger bubbled and he wanted to throttle her for acting so wild, but he restrained himself._ He collected himself, sitting upright and while she ranted and raved, pulling at her hair until Ace hugged her legs and told her to stop._ _

__“You acting _loca_ isn’t helping! Anyways, it’s too late now- there’s no way we’d catch up to Meg now.” The Argentine tries to reason with the Swede, taking a swift kick to his shoulder before Nea realises _just_ who was clinging to her knees, and her temper immediately cools down by several degrees, and her face twists into a horrible rendition of _regret_ for kicking someone she thought of as her uncle._ _

___And as much as she hates to submit to the truth, Ace is right: there is no way that they could go back to warn her._ _ _

__“Hmmm- _Åh, min jävla gud, varför är världen jävla oss i röven_ !?” Growling angrily, she stomps around in a little ball of rage, punting rocks clear across the river until she’s _ambushed_ by a flash of green wrapping around her middle and picking her off the ground enough that she cannot kick any more rocks, then turned and she’s being suffocated by the natural smell of the woodsman, and Nea gives her boyfriend a swift punch in his side before grumpily squeezing him back. _“Du sopor, jag älskar och hatar dig.”__ _

__Knowing just enough Swedish to know she probably just insulted him then told him she loved him, Jake took his small victories where he could, and held her for the few moments that she allowed him to before she forced herself out of his grasp, but not before wiping her angry snot and tears onto his clothes _(disgusting, but he’s not about to complain)_. “It’s… a load of shit, I know.” The survivalist broke the heavy silence that had blanketed the air, and wrung his hands for a few moments while trying to find _encouraging_ words to say._ _

__“But, Meg’s a tough and capable woman. If anything, she’ll outrun it, and it’ll play Hell trying to get her.”_ _

__“You said it best, Jake! And she has _conejito del diablo_ with her and I’m sure it will defend her, if my bite wounds are anything to scoff at!” _Would you believe that everyone scoffed at him?__ _

__“Ah, _pequeñas mierdas adorables_ , have faith in our Megan. She will prevail over any evil that comes her way. She is like that, that… _ay caramba,_ what is the name of that cartoon animal that turns into a ball and fights the egg?”_ _

__“Sonic?” Answered Randall, with a uptwist to his list._ _

__“ _¡Sí!_ Yes, yes, that! We shouldn’t worry too much; instead, we should carry on. But first, here!” Fishing out his flask again, he holds it up in the air in a toast while he twists off the cap and takes a large swig, calling out loudly “Godspeed Megan Thomas!” before he sitting up and clearing his throat, and handing the flask to Nea who welcomed the drink to take the edge off her anxiety, drinking more than her fair share since Randall and Jake both refused to indulge._ _

__“Psst. Jake.” Feeling a soft tug on his sleeve, and the Asian turns to see that it’s Randall. “I think we need to go.”_ _

__Head tilts to the side in curiosity, brows furrowing in confusion. “Why? Ace isn’t-”_ _

__“Ace is going to get himself and Nea drunk again if we just let them drink themselves into a stupor.”_ _

__“...Fuck, you’re right- Alright, Ace, your bandages are done!” Gathering up the scraps of bandages that laid on the riverbank and wringing them dry, Jake quickly took Randall’s thoughts to heart and set about distracting Ace from supplying Nea with alcohol again, kneeling at the gambler’s feet and wrapping his leg back up while ignoring Ace’s question of _“what’s crawled up in your ass, amigo?”__ _

__“The urge to keep going, that’s what.” Fastening the the bandages with a firm tightening of the knot. “Can’t waste precious daylight.”_ _

___“Must be festering.”_ _ _

__“Hmmm?” Humming in amusement, Jake helped Ace to his feet, allowing himself to be used as a crutch while the older man found his bearings. “It’s not the brightest idea to sit around all day and get piss drunk, again, so I think it would be for all of our best interests if we-”_ _

__The long- winded explanation that Jake had just come up with on the spot was soon lost to the wind when a loud scream was heard from somewhere in front of them, the saboteur nearly dropping the man he was propping up from the _startle_ that it gave them all._ _

__“Was that Meg?” Nea sounded _very much_ concerned._ _

__Raking a hand through his hair nervously, Randall put her fears to ease. “No, that couldn’t be; it’s a man’s voice.”_ _

__Jake let Ace stand on his own while he strided forward to gauge _where_ the scream was coming from. “It sounded like Quentin or the Detective.” The scream was heard again, this time closer and sounding more _terrified_ than the previous one. Everyone braced themselves for any incoming hostilities, not taking any chances with how much danger they had already experienced _firsthand_ -_ _

__A black male _burst_ from the forest far ahead of them, tripping and falling almost immediately but then scrambling back to his feet and taking off running again, frantic footfalls splashing water all around as he was nearly chest deep in the river, falling in when he rolled out of the thickets._ _

__“Hey, there’s someone down there!” Nea sprung up to Jake’s side, pointing frantically down at the dark figure attempting to walk-swin through the flowing waters. “The fuck is he doing? He’s going to drown himself like that.”_ _

__“Why is he screaming, that’s the better question.” Ace pointed out, and they soon saw why: _a new monster they had never seen before suddenly appeared at the edge of the forest.__ _

__“Fuck that guy.” Nea muttered, and started retreating backwards, but then stopped when the black male saw them, and started calling out to them. “Help me!” D’ere’sa crazy lady a’eter me!”_ _

___Well, shit, now they can’t ignore him._ _ _

**Author's Note:**

> DOnt mind me im just fucking around with AU's. Watch me say this is a one shot thing and it turns into a whole series.


End file.
